For its sixth anniversary, the SLC Film Center will celebrate with an Aug. 29 fundraiser at Tucano’s Brazilian Grill at the downtown Gaeway Mall, honoring not only significant contributors to Utah’s film industry but also the state’s extensive social, economic, and cultural ties to Brazil.

Among the honorees will be Leigh von der Esch of the Utah Office of Tourism and former head of the Utah Film Commission; Don Schain, producer of the hugely successful High School Musical film series; Utah film makers Jared and Jerusha Hess of Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre fame, and Kris and Paul Liacopoulas, founders of the Salt Lake Film Society.

The event, which begins at 6 p.m., includes such sponsors as the Governor’s Office of Economic Development; Tucanos Brazilian Grill; Gary Neeleman, Utah’s honorary consul of Brazil, the Salt Lake Fim Society, and Viva Brazil. Tickets are $100 each and can be purchased here. The fundraiser will support the SLC Film Center/Salt Lake Film Society partnership.

Brazil’s impact in Salt Lake City and Utah extends into many sectors.The SLC Film Center has a cultural economic development initiative with the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and Brazil and Utah is exploring a 2009 trade mission. Brazil has the third largest film economy in the world after Bollywood and Hollywood and it has 1,200 new Mormon missionaries a year who have deep ties with the state.

The celebration also kicks off the Utah Brazilian Festival, which will be held Saturday, Aug. 30 at Gateway during the afternoon and early evening. The fourth annual event is expected to draw more than 7,000 people. The festival will include traditional Brazilian food, drinks, arts and crafts, from Capoeira and Samba lessons to Brazilian Jiu- Jitsu.

The SLC Film Center celebration on Friday will be capped with the closing show of the popular Pioneer Park Picture Show Series, “The Year My Parents Went on Vacation” or “O Ano em que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias.” This 2006 film, directed by Cao Hamburger, is set in 1970 with 12-year-old Mauro who is sent to live in São Paulo with his grandfather when his parents go “on vacation” (this was the time of the country’s military dictatorship). While he waits for his parents to come back, Mauro roots for Brazil to win the World Cup.

The drama-comedy is a perfect crowd pleaser to end the center’s summer film series. Viewers should pay particular attention to the effective, sparse offscreen narration by an older Mauro who looks back on his coming of age, where real emotions become hazy amid the well-publicized black-and-white images of the World Cup and confetti-strewn streets. Here, Hamburger smoothly blends family tragedies with the energy of sports matches while the pain and disruptions of martial rule pass virtually unnoticed.