Best South American music movies

The story of Francisco, a very simple and poor man whose dream was to see his children become country music stars, and who made all the efforts to make it happen.

From a repressive childhood to artistic revolution, Ney Matogrosso transforms Brazil's stages — and himself — through music, creativity and inner fire.

While waiting for a kidney transplant, a young pianist finds an unexpected connection with her doctor — and the courage to fulfill her musical dreams.

The life of Renato Russo, from his first involvement with music, to his years in the punk rock band Aborto Alétrico, to the formation of Legião Urbana, in the Brasília rock scene of 1970s and 1980s.

Inspired by the moving book “Só as Mães São Felizes”, by Lucinha Araújo, Cazuza's mother, the film covers a little more than 10 years of the singer’s crazy and brief life – from the beginning of his career in the Circo Voador venue, in 1981, to the huge success and the apotheosis of his shows with the Barão Vermelho band, his solo career, his relations with his parents, friends, lovers and passions, and the courage he had to face his final years, with HIV, until his death, in 1990.

Two girls have a chance encounter and instantly befriend. While trying to find themselves, they decide to pursue music together.

During the Carnival in the historical site of Pelourinho, Salvador da Bahia, we follow the lives of the tenants of a falling-to-pieces tenement house who try to get by using creativity, irony, humor, and music.

Biopic of Brazilian singer Tim Maia, from his childhood in Rio de Janeiro until his death at age 55, including his passage by the US, where he discovers a new style of music and is arrested for theft and drug possession.

The 90s. A famous Spanish rock star travels around Latin America in the endeavour to reconnect with his vocation. There he meets an old musician down on his luck, prompting the birth of an unlikely duo with every chance of becoming an epic commercial failure.

Between scenes from his concert in São Paulo's oft-inaccessible Theatro Municipal, rapper and activist Emicida celebrates the rich legacy of Black Brazilian culture.

A pair of mice attempt to board Noah's Ark: Vini, a charismatic poet with terrible stage fright, and Tito, a talented and charming guitarist. When the rains come, only one male and one female of each species is allowed on Noah's Ark. With the help of an ingenious cockroach and fate's good luck, Vini and Tito sneak their way onto the Ark and together avert a showdown among the ships carnivores and plant eaters. All the while, the animals perform a series of classic songs inspired by world renowned poet, Vinicius de Moraes. Can these talented stowaways use music to break the tension and help these cooped up creatures survive the 40 days and 40 nights together?

Armed with music and a message, influential hip-hop group Racionais MC's turned their street poetry into a powerful movement in Brazil and beyond.

The life and times of comedy rock band Mamonas Assassinas, from their beginning to their breakthrough in the late 1990s.

Luiz Gonzaga decides to change his destiny and leaves his childhood home for the big city to overcome a romance. When he arrives, he meets a woman he falls in love with, the Odaleia (Nanda Costa). After the birth of his son and his wife's health complications, he decides to return to the road to ensure a better future for his son. He has a friend in Rio de Janeiro and with him leaves the little one and heads to Brazil. He didn't imagine that this distance between them would develop into a complicated relationship, enhanced by the strong personalities of both. Based on conversations between father and son, this is the story of Luiz Gonzaga, a singer and accordion player known as Rei do Baião or Gonzagão.

Karol G pulls back the curtain on her rise to stardom while navigating a sold-out stadium tour, creating new music and releasing a new album.

The life story of Claudinho e Buchecha, greatest icons and most successful duo of the Brazilian funk melody in all time, showing how the rhythm and poetry of the periphery conquered Brazil.

Madonna celebrates her four-decade career in a special concert for over 1.6 million people at the Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro.

Marked by losses and mismatches, José's eccentric family seek to be happy while locked in Paraíso Perdido, a nightclub that has stopped in time, where they sing popular romantic music.

As the world boiled in the rush of Easy Rider bikes, in the frenetic pace of Elvis Presley, in Beatniks poets, in the explosion of counterculture, a boy from Bahia gave birth to Rock in Brazil. A runaway flying saucer that abducted the hearts and minds of thousands of fans, Raul Seixas, a man who became a myth. Raul died young because he lived intensely. Rock n 'roll, free love, alternative society, drugs, black magic, military dictatorship, women and daughters. A man who wanted to live from his work and died for it. The beginning, the end and the middle are confused, because the story is not over. The film reveals through rare images of archive, meeting with relatives, conversations with artists, producers and friends, the trajectory of the legend of Rock.

Humble officials, friends Didi, Dedé, Mussum and Zacarias become the great attraction of the circus Bartolo, thanks to its incredible ability to make the public laugh. But success has a price: the opposition of the magician Assis Satan and the greed of the Baron, the owner of the circus. Together, the four friends will have to fight them.

The second edition of Todo Mundo no Rio, internationally known as Mayhem on the Beach, marked a historic moment on Copacabana Beach. After thirteen years away from the country, Lady Gaga returned to Brazil with a free concert promoting her eighth studio album, Mayhem (2025). With a record-breaking crowd of 2.5 million people, the show became the biggest performance of her career and cemented her as the female artist with the largest audience in history.

Eccentric Durval is a bit like the record shop he operates with his mother: rundown and pathetic. When their home becomes too much for his mother to care for, Durval hires a maid who no sooner disappears, leaving a young girl and a note behind.

In the city of São Paulo, the routine of gravedigger apprentice Deodato changes when a new working girl arrives at the cemetery. Together, they must re-register the abandoned tombs, but strange events make the apprentice wonder about the consequences of messing with the dead.

An emotional dive into the music and life of Erasmo Carlos, from his years as a young rock-and-roller looking for gigs through his enduring musical partnership with Roberto Carlos.

A biopic based on the life of one of the pioneer argentine rock stars 'Tanguito'. The movie tells the story of his rise and fall from grace, encompassed in violent times of a military regime.

Film about the Bahian singer dives into the moment when shy Gracinha becomes Gal Costa, during the violent, innovative and mind-blowing years that helped shape Brazil's greatest singer.

A young man with charisma and magnetism enters the atmosphere of tropical music as a romantic singer and undertakes a vertiginous ascent to fame.

The trajectory of musician and comedian Mussum as vocalist of the group "Os Originais do Samba" and later in cinema and TV as a member of "Os Trapalhões", a group that revolutionized the way of making humor on Brazilian television.

Baixo Astral, an evil spirit who lives in the sewers, and whose mission is to bring unhappiness to the world, sees Xuxa on TV asking children to fight for a better world. Threatened by those words, he declares war on her and devises a plan: helped by his allies Titica and Morcegão, he kidnaps Xuxo, her dog. Helped by Xixa (a gypsy caterpillar) and Rafa, a rebel teenager, Xuxa goes on a mission to get her dog back and save the world from Baixo Astral.

The life and death of the tropical singer Gilda.

A portrait of famed Chilean singer and folklorist Violeta Parra filled with her musical work, her memories, her loves and her hopes.

In less than ten months, the music band Mamonas Assassinas went from being completely unknown to becoming one of the biggest phenomena in Brazilian music. Irreverent, intelligent, sarcastic and creative, the band took over Brazil and sold two million albums in just six months. Never-before-seen footage and interviews from family, friends, producers, and musicians tell the band’s story, their challenges, their rise to fame, and the tragic aeroplane accident that killed all its members in 1996.

Nearly 2 hours of the short films that made HIStory... Including never before released short films.

Participants recall a series of festivals held on a farm in Brazil during the '70s and '80s that evolved into liberating celebrations of music.

A talented songwriter of sambas is forced to face the social injustices of the city around him.

When a rock wannabe is forced to replace his famous sertanejo look-alike, he faces a life-changing choice — lose his own identity or follow his heart.

After failing to be admitted into the OSESP Orchestra, a talented violinist is forced to give music classes to teenagers in a public school. He soon finds his world transformed by the power of music and friendships formed with his pupils.

In the 1970s, "festivals" were incredibly popular in Brazil, as they were recorded before a live studio audience, and usually featured a number of elimination rounds. They also formed the springboard for the career of many a big-name stars, such as Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Roberto Carlos and Gilberto Gil. Appearing on such a program was no cakewalk, however: audiences could be as wild in their condemnation as in their appreciation of an artist. Extensive archive footage (including performances and behind-the-scenes interviews) from the turbulent final evening of the Festival of Brazilian Popular Music 1967 paints a fascinating picture, not only of the transformation of Brazilian music into real "festival" music, but also of a society starting to buck against the yoke of military rule.

Didi, Soró and Tatu in search food and water head for the town of Oróz. On their journey they find a Scarecrow, a man in a metal vat, and later are arrested by a Lion Sheriff.

In a small village in the hinterland, three stories of love and desire are changing the emotional landscape of its residents. Characters of a romanesque world in which their conceptions of life are limited on one side by human instincts, on the other by a blind and fatalist fate.

Mia is happy to be able to spend a vacation with her dad, but Lupe, Mercedes, Juanma and Alvaro arrive by surprise at the same resort... and bring the school drama with them!

After his wife's death, a vallenato singer from Majagual, Sucre, decides to quit music and return his allegedly cursed accordion to his master. He is joined by Fermín Morales, a teenage boy who admires him and wishes to follow his footsteps. Together, they start a journey throughout several towns in Northern Colombia to Taroa, in La Guajira desert, where the singer's master supposedly lives.

Legendary rock band Rush plays the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on the final night of the band's 2002 Vapor Trails tour, in front of 40,000 fans.

Originally from Bahia and considered today one of the most globalised musical movements in the world, Axé is a musical rhythm that carries in its essence a good part of all the musical and cultural syncretism of Bahia. The documentary brings together interviews and archive images outlining the birth of Axé.

A struggling all-female rock band kicks off a new tour, hoping to rekindle their popularity. When they catch the attention of horrors from beyond our reality, the band realizes that being forgotten by their fans is the least of their problems.

Brazilian pop star Anitta reveals her most intimate world yet in this documentary that explores her dual identity, personal struggles and search for joy.

The year 2015 will be chronicled as magical, mythical and memorable. The People of Tomorrow experienced Tomorrowland on three continents this year. After celebrating the 10th anniversary in Belgium in 2014 and putting ashore in the United States, the third chapter of our magnificent fairytale was written in Brazil for the very first time.

Set against the turbulent atmosphere of the 1960s, Tropicália is a feature length documentary exploring the Brazilian artistic movement known as Tropicália, and the struggle its artists endured to protect their right to freely express revolutionary thought against the traditional Brazilian music of that time.

Rodrigo is a marginalized and lonely being who prefers to die before being forced to kill. He finds himself trapped in a city that oppresses him, calls him, marginalizes him.

Cássia Eller Rejane. Cássia Eller. Cássia. A powerful restless force on stage, shined herself out of it. One of the greats of Brazilian music, Cássia Eller marked the 1990s and shocked the country with her early death in 2001. A film about the singer, the mother, the woman who exposed her personal life and broke barriers, leaving a beautiful social and artistic legacy.

Colombian reggaeton singer J Balvin prepares for his 2019 homecoming concert amid intense political turmoil.

The reunion of three friends, among tango, dance, music and the opportunity of a trip that will take them as in their good old days to travel the route of the country.

Chico Buarque is a constant presence in Brazil's art scene and makes up its citizen's popular culture. This wealth in music, poems, theater and novels has been created over the last 50 years and in this film Chico Buarque converses about his memories, shows, daily life, work methods, creative process, in summary all his trajectory. The musician’s search for his German brother, whom he never got to meet, serves as one of the axis for the narrative.

Days before her birthday, Kally meets the latest pop icon, who is as successful as he is seductive, but ex-boyfriend Dante still has feelings for her and doesn't want to lose her. While she's having the time of her life, Kally must decide what to do with her career and her heart.

The long awaited documentary about Sepultura's incredible journey from Brazil to the world.

Loki brings the trajectory of Arnaldo Baptista from childhood, passing through the most successful phase as leader of the Mutantes, marriage to singer Rita Lee and then separation. He also goes through the depression that devastated his life after the group ended and that led him to attempt suicide, his solo career, rapprochement with his brother and member of the Mutantes, Sérgio Dias, culminating in the band's return in 2006.

"Nossa História" was the ninth tour of the Brazilian duo Sandy & Junior, held between July and November 2019. The tour marks the reunion of the duo twelve years after their last shows in 2007. The show, recorded in São Paulo, was first released exclusively for Globoplay, and later made available on DVD.

Nena, a journalist and former student of the Two Hearts dance academy, tries to stop the school from being sold to a group of drug dealers. She trains a group to win the Requebra dance contest that would give them the necessary money to carry their plans.

Taking the stage for a colorful performance, Katy Perry helped kick off the first day of the Rock in Rio Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on September 23, 2011. The 26-year-old energized the crowd with a rendition of songs including Firework, California Gurls, Waking Up In Vegas and Hot n Cold while even sharing a smooch with a lucky fan in attendance. Back in Rio de Janeiro for the first time since 2001 after taking place in Lisbon and Madrid over the past decade, Rock in Rio is the largest music and entertainment event in history, with nine editions held in Brazil, Portugal and Spain. Setlist: Teenage Dream / Waking Up in Vegas / Peacock / I Kissed a Girl / Circle the Drain / E.T. / Thinking of You / M.J / Hot N Cold / Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.) / Firework / California Gurls

In the unique world of the Buenos Aires celebrity-impersonator scene, “Elvis” Gutiérrez is a star. By day, though, he must contend with a dead-end factory job and an ex-wife who worries about how his obsessive behavior affects their young daughter, Lisa Marie. Feeling more connected to his persona as the King than to his own family, Gutiérrez retreats from reality until a tragic accident interrupts his plans and forces him to grapple with his real-world responsibilities.

To the beat of his avant-garde and eclectic rhythms, Brazilian rapper Emicida performs hits from his album AmarElo at the São Paulo Municipal Theater.

Acoustic MTV is the fourth live album and the sixteenth of the career of Brazilian pop double Sandy and Junior. The brothers' last project as a duo was released in 2007, the year in which they announced their separation after 17 years as a musical duo.

In this alternate world, Bia and Manuel will have a tempestuous relationship. Pixie, the hateful and stunning owner of Laix, decides to buy the Fundom. The great conflict erupts when Pixie announces a concert. This will have Bia and Helena, who in this upside down universe are divas and rivals, fighting to be the headliner in the final show.

After the death of what Gracinha - a ballerina - thought to be the soul of art, she faces a dilemma: can she carry on doing what she's always done, or should she start a search for something that could set her heart free?

Pabllo Vittar celebrates his 5-year career with the audiovisual project "I Am Pabllo", a show that brings the four elements of nature as a theme and has the biggest hits of all his albums. The mega show was recorded at Oca, at Ibirapuera Park, in São Paulo, and has four stages, lots of choreography, extravagant looks and inspiration from the k-pop universe.