This series is the largest Brazilian film festival in the Midwest. The annual event features Brazilian films with a social conscience, fostering conversations about social issues, culture, politics, history and the environment and is viewed by the academic community, students, filmmakers, and the general public. MOSTRA was founded by Ariani Friedl in Chicago in 2010 and expanded to other towns in Illinois and Indiana and to São Paulo in 2015, where the same Brazilian films are shown to audiences there. In 2014, Ariani initiated MOSTRA of American Films.
