Kevin

Distributed by Pragda, 302 Bedford Ave., #136, Brooklyn, NY 11249Produced by Joana Oliveria and Luana MelgaçoDirected by Joana Oliveira2021, Streaming, 80 mins Kevin reminds us of the power, beauty, and intimacy of friendship; how two old friends can pick up their relationship after years of separation; how they can burst into laughter and discuss serious topics, even within the same conversation. In Brazil, Joana lives in a modern apartment with her husband, teaches, and visits her father in the hospital. Joana’s daily routine is interrupted when she receives an energetic voice message from an old friend, Kevin, inviting Joana for a visit. (Here it should be noted that Kevin is a woman, though Kevin has often been used as an English language male name.) And so Joana arrives in Uganda and is reunited with the friend she met years ago in Germany. Joana and Kevin’s easy connection is immediately clear: in the way they share food in the car ride from the airport and in how Kevin and Joana sit on the floor of Kevin’s home playing with Kevin’s three young children. The conversations between Joana and Kevin while they prepare food for the family, take a walk, and after Kevin’s children have gone to bed, reveal the larger circumstances of the lives of Joana in Brazil and Kevin in Uganda: pregnancies, work, caregiving, and their experiences with racism. These parts of life seem equal to the other moments the women share of shopping or dropping children at school, as it is the communicating or sharing of life’s moments that continues to connect Joana and Kevin.