You Are What You Are Born For

Roberto Berliner

1999 | 00:06:26 | Brazil | English | Color | Stereo | 4:3 | Video

Collection: Single Titles

Tags: Documentary, History

You Are What You Are Born For features three blind sisters who sing for their survival on the streets of Campina Grande, Brazil. By providing personal testimony about the intimate details of their everyday experiences, these women bring into question the act of seeing and perceiving. The piece opens with a collage of abstract images, a sequence of rotated landscapes. As viewers, we are subject to what Berliner describes as a, "Vertigo provoked by vision," an alternative vision that invites us to consider how perception affects our identity.

This title is only available on Betraying Amnesia: Latin America Video Portraiture.