I Will Be There Every Single Night - Poster I Will Be There Every Single Night - Still 01 I Will Be There Every Single Night - Still 02 I Will Be There Every Single Night - Still 03
  • Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival

  • Olhar de Cinema - Curitiba Int'l Film Festival

    Best Acting, Best Director
  • Wicked Queer Boston's LGBTQ Film Festival

  • Queer Lisboa

Synopsis

Portuguese with English subtitles

With Mel Rosário

Directed by Suellen Vasconcelos and Tati Franklin, I Will Be There Every Single Night examines the fight for justice and self-reinvention of Mel Rosário, a trans woman in her 50s living in Bolsonarist Brazil. After suffering a transphobic physical assault in her evangelical church, Mel seeks redress through the courts and stages nightly protests outside the church that now bars her from attending services.​

The film provides a nuanced portrait of Mel’s resolve to uphold her dignity and right to religious participation amid broader systemic oppression in contemporary Brazil. By tracking her acts of protest and legal struggle, I Will Be There Every Single Night offers a vital lens on transgender resistance, intersections of faith and exclusion, and the resilience of marginalized identities in the context of escalating socio-political conservatism.​

About the Director
Tati Franklin graduated in Cinema and Audiovisual from the Federal University of Espírito Santo, works as filmmaker on Filmes Fritos, an independent production company in Brazil. After directing, filming and editing short films awarded and shown in national and international festivals, she directed her first feature documentary, I Will Be There Every Single Night, financed by SECULT-ES and Ancine/FSA. The film was at the Rough Cut Lab of the acclaimed Visions du Réel (2021) and in the Work In Progress category at the 25th Mostra de Tiradentes (2022).

Suellen Vasconcelos holds a master’s degree in Education (UERJ) and a bachelor’s degree in Radio and TV (Faesa). Audiovisual teacher and curator of exhibitions and festivals in Espírito Santo, Brasil. Filmmaker on Filmes Fritos, an independent producer in Vitória-ES, she works as director, editor and sound recording. She directed her first feature documentary, I Will Be There Every Single Night, financed by SECULT-ES and Ancine/FSA.

Press

Every Night I’ll Be There exposes the transphobia that turned the church’s pastors into wolves preying on their own flock. But Mel’s faith is strong — as strong as her determination.” – Alvaro Goulart, Cinema com Crítica

“Tati Franklin and Suellen Vasconcelos don't always focus on the battle against the church, but they give it interesting contours with the very human portrait of their protagonist.” – Raissa Ferreira, Feito Por Elas

Notes on the Film

“Understanding the ethical widening of the border between the real and the invented was fundamental for the construction of the narrative that was based on a story with self-fiction elements built with the protagonist.

The proposal was for Mel to live in the film, not just her harsh reality, but also to perform and represent herself as she wanted on screen, including finding some space for a small shift in the center story to watch one of her dreams come true.

It is about re-signifying and retaking territory for those who daily exchange dreams for survival. For us, it is important to tell stories that question reality and (re)produce other possible forms of life, other than those that enclose, kill, and oppress. In I Will Be There Every Single Night, Mel builds new meanings of the present and re-elaborates the picture of a transsexual woman in the stigmatizing and unhealthy context of (de)constructing trans lives in Brazil.”

– Suellen Vasconcelos and Tati Franklin, directors

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