Brazilian Movies Fight for Space
Octávio Bezerra: Brazilian Movies Fight for Space
Octávio Bezerra, director of Nzinga, took almost six years to complete his project. He attributes this delay to a cause so often seen in Brazilian movies: scarce resources. He also points out that the concealed racism present in Brazil was another cause for this delay. According to Bezerra, Nzinga, is a film that is feminine and black, and that shows a new style of language since it is music that defines the rhythm of its production. It tells the history of African influence on Brazilian music in three states (Pernambuco, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro). The film production shows the main character, played by Taís Araújo, heeding to the calling of the drumbeat. Bezerra also describes how the young woman is looking for guidance and candomblé, a cult that many discriminate against, helps her. As the director points out, Brazil ends up wasting talent and songs due to prejudice.
The filmmaker goes on to note that foreign films and productions by Globo Filmes have complete control over distribution. There is no room for small and medium sized producers to have their films showing for more than just a few days. The director considers that currently the language of television has taken over. Bezerra, who has produced many short films, and who has conquered the international market with A Resistência da Lua, in 1985, also complains about the lack of law regulations that rule screenings of short films and the need to go through proper procedures at the Federal Congress. He points out that when this was obligatory, distributors and exhibitors paid for the screening, generating revenue, which would allow for more productions. Consequently, a new generation of directors emerged. He hopes this will occur again with the sanction of the new law.
After Nzinga, Bezerra has also finished Cine Jornada, a documentary that is narrated by Nélson Pereira dos Santos and that recovers part of Brazilian movies, talking about Companhia Vera Cruz and about the directors who were pioneers, interlaid with short excerpts from short films. The director is currently struggling to have these two films distributed and exhibited.
Lírio Ferreira and Hilton Lacerda: Northeastern Accents in Universal Characters
Lírio Ferreira and Hilton Lacerda, both born in the State of Pernambuco and both directors of the documentary Cartola – The Samba Legend, revealed that they were interested in the samba composer born Rio de Janeiro because Itaú Cultural Institute, of São Paulo, invited them to do a research on the composer. Soon after this, in Rio de Janeiro, they took interest in the screenplay and the production started in 1998. In the beginning of 2006, the documentary was ready. Lírio and Hilton said they enjoyed working together. Lírio points out the friendship that leads to a convergent view of the directors, and Hilton says that, although in the daily routine there are differences of opinion, at work there is a connection. And both of them have already worked with other people, having had experience in sharing duties.
The current boom in documentary productions and the public’s interest in such films are considered by Hilton a result of the use of new technologies that make the process easier. Lírio thinks it’s still not the ideal, but Brazilian movies have become more Brazilian, and is not limited only to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro as production centers. Even though they are not in their home State, since Lírio lives in Rio and Hilton in São Paulo, they say they keep creating characters that relate to their personal histories, but that are universal because they could be placed anywhere in the world.
Lírio says that Árido Movie, screenplay by Hilton, is his most pernambucano (Pernambuco origin) and yet most universal film. Hilton explains that the director uses instruments that were part of his life in the stories, but that they are windows to the cosmopolitan, not keeping themselves to the showing of limited places. As an example, he mentions the screenplay of Amarelo Manga, which he wrote for Claudio Assis to direct. He says the film has an accent from the City of Recife, but universal characters.” Hilton also says that what drives people away from national films is the lack of information. According to him, there’s a diversity of films with the most diverse themes, for diverse tastes, but prejudice keeps people away.
Sílvio Coutinho: The Public is the Best Critic
The director, screenwriter and editor of Remissão, Sílvio Coutinho, says that the Mostra has a very important aspect – screening films for the public to judge. In his opinion, the public is the most legitimate of all critics. He points out that São Paulo’s Mostra is different from other festivals in terms of the quality of films it shows, which also allows inexperienced directors to share their work. He would like that other festivals make this space available and that the selection criteria be clearer. Although he had worked on a feature film before, Além do Olhar, the fact that he could not afford to finish it makes him consider Remissão his first feature. Once again due to a lack of resources, Coutinho is responsible for different functions of the filmmaking process.
The Brazilian filmmakers are unanimous in pointing out that the greatest difficulty they encounter in film production is in raising funds. This hardship repeats itself at the end of the process, since distributing the film is another drama. This is why Coutinho really believes in these festivals, since they are the main medium to publicize films. For the director, the older generations have a certain prejudice against Brazilian movies, even never having watched a film. This is where Coutinho points out a contradiction, since it is also the older generation that enjoys Brazilian soap operas. According to Coutinho, should a spectator watch a domestic production, he would recognize himself and his reality on screen and he would certainly begin to appreciate Brazilian movies.
Remissão is an epic rural, explains Coutinho, pointing out that it was shot at Areias farm, in Cantagalo, in the City of Rio de Janeiro, using original furniture and other objects that were over 100 years old. He goes on to say that the cemetery, the stables and the sawmill were the only constructed sets. With little money and high expectations from the people involved in the production, Coutinho cast a new actor, Alexandre Piccini, as well as young talent Sthefany Brito, and counted on the experience of actresses Léa Garcia and Imara Reis. He is also part of the cast, in the role of Miguel.
Besides these difficulties, the filmmaker is finishing his next film, Mão de Luva, a documentary about a Portuguese bandit that mined gold in the southern region of Rio de Janeiro in the 18th century. Tiradentes was after this bandit, whose arrest resulted in the creation of the city of Cantagalo, which, as legend has it, received this name because the Mão de Luva (Gloved Hands), was only found and then arrested because a rooster’s crow from the middle of a thicket delivered his whereabouts. The film is due for release in March 2007 in the city of Cantagalo.
Gustavo Pizzi: Memories in Near-Fiction
Gustavo Pizzi is 30, the same age as the Mostra, and is a first-time director with the feature film Pretérito Perfeito. Director, editor and screenwriter, Pizzi has chosen the Casa Rosa (the Pink House), an old whore house in Rio de Janeiro, as the theme for his documentary. He explains that the house closed down in 1991, and that the place is now a cultural corner. Since he used to go to many of the parties that were held in the building, he heard many stories about the whore house and was interested in the theme. He researched, but was neither able to find any official history nor did he find newspaper articles. He then started to haunt Vila Mimosa, Rio`s red light district, where there are many women who had worked at Casa Rosa. However, he was not able to get any declarations from them, since they wanted to be paid in return and he could not afford it.
Besides the financial problems, Pizzi had to face yet another problem – very few of the women were willing to talk openly about their work. They wanted to be kept anonymous and the director included in the documentary only the ones who showed their identity. One of these women is Ivanilda, who at 65, with grown children who are college graduates, still makes a living in prostitution. It took Pizzi three years to make this documentary, but he considers the work to have been very positive, since all the people who gave declarations are passionate about this theme and want to preserve the building where Casa Rosa used to run and avoid it from being demolished by real estate speculations.
The director reveals that his next project will be a fiction feature film, although he does consider Pretérito Perfeito as near-fiction, since when stories are told from memory some new elements are always added. Pizzi had the opportunity to watch his film’s first screening at the 30th Mostra. He found it interesting to see the public react to his work. He was worried about the copy, the sound; anyhow, his main concerns were these technical details. He felt much better after seeing that everything was running smoothly. And so, the film went from being his and now belongs to the public.