Pictures of Ghosts

Pictures of Ghosts (Portuguese: Retratos Fantasmas) is a 2023 Brazilian documentary film written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho.

The film revisits Kleber's hometown, the Brazilian city of Recife, through the historical prism of the cinemas he once frequented, based on his own personal archival footage, remembering what used to be idyllic places, now closed, that constituted an important time-marker in the evolution of Brazilian society.

That city area is now an archaeological site of sorts that reveals aspects of life in society which have been lost.

[2] During seven years, while watching his own old videos at his office, on VHS, Betacam, and Hi8 cassettes, or on MiniDV, personal files and records which also contain photographs and audio recordings, Kleber began the film developing, also aiming to shoot new footage with modern equipment.

[8] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 88 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".