Past Film/Video | Contemporary Screen

Divine Love

(Divino amor, Gabriel Mascaro, 2019)

Stream | Artist Residency

Two silhouettes, a woman on the left and a man on the right, holding hands, standing in front of a neon circle that features a blue neon dove in the center

Set in a future Brazil where the Evangelical Church controls daily life, the dystopian drama Divine Love follows the story of a woman who uses her government position to save struggling couples from divorce.

The bureaucrat’s efforts to save marriages and get closer to God through the unconventional “sex therapy” practices of the Church of Divine Love are complicated by her desire to conceive a child and improve her own marriage. With its drive-thru chapels and neon-lit evangelical raves, the world of Divine Love presages the trajectory of Brazil’s political and cultural climate under President Jair Bolsonaro.

Gabriel Mascaro's residency in the center’s Film/Video Studio supported the project and it was the result of a partnership with Associação Cultural Videobrasil, São Paulo. Mascaro is also one of the participating filmmakers in the center's Artist Residency Award project Cinetracts '20. (101 mins., digital video). In Portuguese with English subtitles.

"The new age of Brazilian protest cinema begins here, and Divine Love has kicked it off in dancing shoes."
Two silhouettes, a woman on the left and a man on the right, holding hands, standing in front of a neon circle that features a blue neon dove in the center

Divine Love, image courtesy of Outsider Pictures

A woman dressed all in white kneels in a pool of water. Her arms are aloft and she is soaked in water.

Divine Love, image courtesy of Outsider Pictures

A group of people stand up to their waists in water in a baptismal ceremony. On the shore stand two separate groups, on the right are musicians playing instruments, on the left are four people in matching green shirts and pink skirts.

Divine Love, image courtesy of Outsider Pictures

FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Cardinal Health
Kaufman Development

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Rohauer Collection Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Greater Columbus Arts Council
L Brands Foundation
American Electric Power Foundation
The Columbus Foundation
Ohio Arts Council
Mary and C. Robert Kidder
Bill and Sheila Lambert
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Huntington
Nationwide Foundation
Adam R. Flatto
Arlene and Michael Weiss

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Axium Plastics
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams
Lisa M. Barton
Business Furniture Installations
Our Country Home

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Past Film/Video

Divine Love