The power of “Fernanda Young: Out of Control”

Fernanda Young has always drawn attention for breaking away from social conventions. The film is illustrated with homemade and professional images, many photos, at times bordering on surrealism, and is mostly narrated by its protagonist, after all, he always had a lot to say. Young talks about everything from mental health, dyslexia, sexuality to love.

The montage of “Fuge me Ao Controle”, by Ítalo Sanches, exudes the artist’s chaotic energy. He mixes photographs, interviews on TV programs, excerpts from books and poetry with images from films such as “Metropolis (1927)”, by Fritz Lang, or “Taxi Driver, (1976)” by Martin Scorsese, “Salomé (1923)”, “Bete Balanço (1984)”, among an infinity of scenes that feel liberating.

The documentary is imbued with a very strong feminist spirit. It is the aesthetic and audiovisual manifesto of a woman who has carried many triumphs but also traumas. One of the highlights of the film is when it reflects on Vani, the character from the iconic “Os Normais”, written with her husband Alexandre Machado, who is actually her alter ego.

Animations created from drawings made by Fernanda herself complete the documentary’s mosaic. “The documentary delves into this literary side of Fernanda that few people know about. She resented not being recognized as a writer, and she was a voice for feminism at a time when the subject was rarely discussed,” says Susanna Lira.

Intimate, unfiltered and quite inventive in terms of language, the documentary pays homage to the memory of Fernanda Young, but above all celebrates her life and her existence. Her mark on the world was not only in the many tattoos on her body, but in every word she wrote, in every pioneering reflection she brought to light.

*Eduardo de Assumpção is a journalist and responsible for the blog cinematografiaqueer.blogspot.com