Brasilidade não é saudade: Brasil Special in the (S8)
First we were taken by Argentina, then by Japan. But this year, as we wanted to return to warmer latitudes, the (S8) goes into the thick jungle, the Brazilian experimental cinema, and brings a film selection from the 20s until today, some of the most exciting film events of that country.
Límite, by Mário Peixoto
From the very beginning, the special focus in Brazil starts with a program developed by the researcher and film historian Lila Foster -who has worked at Cinemateca Brasileira- who gives a reading of the Brazilian film history seen from the avant-garde. Maluco é Mágico (1927, William Schocair), is an amazing futuristic and subversive film on an island populated by the strangest people in the world. Limite (1931) is the only movie by the writer Mario Peixoto, a cult film of overwhelming beauty and poetic understanding ahead of its time and which Eisenstein and Welles liked too. There could also be seen Veja o Brasil. Macumba (1950), by Alceu Maynard, belonging to the series of ethnographic cinegraphies, which portrays the mix of Christianity and African religious practices occurring in Brazil. It will be followed by Humberto Mauro’s film, one of the most important Brazilian filmmakers of the early twentieth century, who built from a popular song, “A Velha a Fiar”, a work that goes from Costumbrismo to the rhythmic edition of images that play with composition, stop motion, collage and humor. The program also shows two important movements of Brazilian cinema: first, the Cinema Novo, with Patio (1959), the first film by the legendary Glauber Rocha, and (1966), Fala Brasilia by Nelson Pereira dos Santos, and on the other hand, the so-called Cinema da Boca do Lixo with a film by one of the main names, Rogério Sganzerla: Documentario, photographed by Andrea Tonacci, a short film that gauges the pulse of the political situation of the country at the time with the narrative freedom and the documentary touch of the new cinema of the sixties.
A revolução das massas, by Marcos Bertoni
The presence of Marcos Bertoni is undoubtedly one of the surprises of the program devoted to Brazil. Bertoni, a Brazilian super 8 hero, an unclassifiable film outsider known by international audiences in some way thanks to his role in the award-winning movie Avanti Popolo, by Michael Wahrmann, where he has a leading part. From his early works in super 8 –in the seventies- among which there can be found films such as an unbiased remake of the blockbuster Cleopatra and short films where political criticism is mixed with humor, to his radical parody of the Danish Dogma, Dogma 2002, whose motto is: “Filming, editing, dubbing is not allowed. Always in Super 8…”. A universe in which there are sharp visions of the dictatorship, ironic gazes at the invasion of new churches in Brazil and the enigmatic frame invasion of a being from another world.
Memória da Memória, by Paula Gaitán
In A Coruña we will also meet Paula Gaitán, an outstanding filmmaker whose work has been seen at the Viennale, IndieLisboa, Bafici, Tribeca and Reina Sofía Museum, among others. Gaitán, who was involved with Glauber Rocha, offers an interesting look on home footage and filmed diary. Rocha himself, who can be felt in her films, is a key figure in one of her most famous and awarded movies, Diario de Sintra. Here we will have the opportunity to see one of her most recent films Memória da Memória, a film-essay built with her own images in super 8 whose title deals with one of the fascinating walking paths she follows: the recording of the protagonists’ reaction to the filmed memory and its meaning over time. Gaitán will also offer, after the film, a special screening of a selection of super 8 works.
Traveler Heart, by Distruktur
The current picture of the Brazilian experimental film will close the tour around this thriving and operating filmmaking. The S8 Contemporary section will bring to A Coruña the Brazilian duo Distruktur, based in Berlin, whose work has been seen at festivals such as Berlin, Torino, Moscow and Curta Cinema in Rio de Janeiro, as well as at institutions such as the New Museum in New York, the Paço das Artes in São Paulo, and the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo in Vilnius. The films and performances by Melissa Dullius and Gustavo Jahn, members of the duo Distruktur, touch the possible paths of fiction, suggesting -through their powerful imagination- elusive narratives to be built by the viewer. In addition to a session dedicated to their films, one of the nights of (S8) Overflows at Fundación Luis Seoane will be dedicated to one of their performances, with screenings and live music performed by the duo itself.
Child World, by duo Strangloscope
Finally, to complete this review of the present, there could also be seen films by the most outstanding representatives of the new generation of Brazilian filmmakers, such as, among others, Ana Vaz (whose last film has just been released at Ann Arbor), the programmer and filmmaker Gustavo Beck, who will also be in A Coruna, as well as the Strangloscope duo, Claudia Cádenas and Rafael Schlichting, which will bring their refreshing approach to our city.