Gilberto Topczewski, Kiko Goifman, Caio Cavechini, Décio Matos Jr., Serginho Groisman, Tocha Alves, Ângela Patrícia Reiniger and Lírio Ferreira.
THE QUEST FOR WHAT’S REAL
At the Mostra’s Lounge, eight directors fed a heated discussion on the boom of Brazilian documentariesSaturday the 21st, at 7:00p.m., film directors and producers Gilberto Topczewski (Pixote in Memorian), Décio Matos Jr. (Fabricating Tom Zé), Caio Cavechini (Antes, Um Dia e Depois), Tocha Alves (God and Devil on Top of the Wall), Gustavo Pizzi (Pretérito Perfeito), Ângela Patrícia Reiniger (Three Blood Brothers), Kiko Goifman (Acts of Men) and Lírio Ferreira (Cartola – The Samba Legend) gathered with the public at the Mostra’s Lounge to discuss their films and the production of documentaries in Brazil.
All the directors there, with no exception, have shot their documentaries with digital technology. The first topic for discussion was how this process has made the filmmakers’ lives easier. Cavechini, whose costs for Antes, Um Dia e Depois were R$ 10,000, made sure to point out that his project was only made possible thanks to the technology’s low cost. “All I had to do was take the camera and shoot.” Although agreeing with the financial advantages, director and producer Lírio Ferreira pointed out what he considers a side effect of the digital age. To him, one reflects too little on what is going to be filmed nowadays. “Some time ago, we had to mature and pay attention. Today we shoot everything and say: ‘I’ll decide what to do when editing’”.
Another topic discussed, and one that heated up the debate, was the production cost of the films. One of the spectators asked the directors how much they had spent to make their documentaries. Seeing the considerable difference in the productions’ budget – the most expensive, Cartola – The Samba Legend, cost R$ 800,000, and the cheapest one was indeed Antes, Um Dia e Depois –, another spectator asked why the difference was so great. The directors understood the question as a possible insinuation of badly used resources and they made sure to point out – some of them very much irritated – that they have to justify every single nickel spent in the production. Lírio also outlined that every film has its own particularities that make the budget different: “One of the most expensive parts of my film, for example, were the author’s copyrights.”
Leon Cakoff, director of the Mostra, attended the debate and talked about the everlasting problem of screening in Brazil. To Topczewski, it’s true that nowadays there are more documentaries being produced than screened. “It would be wonderful if we had a screening place to show what is being produced”, he says.
Tocha Alves emphasized that television would be the ideal exhibition medium for documentaries since Brazilian people are not used to going to the movie theaters to see this genre of film. “Our target-public is at home”, he says. But he doesn’t see much interest from the TV broadcasting channels towards domestic productions. “A channel like GNT (cable TV), for instance, broadcasts for a whole week documentaries on American blues, but they seldom open their doors to Brazilian productions.”
Sometimes agreeing, sometimes disagreeing, directors and producers who were at the Mostra’s Lounge didn’t dispute only the fact that documentaries are winning more and more fans. Topczewski sums up: “I believe there is a documentary boom around the world. People are looking for what’s real, for the truth.”