Cannes

Limite is playing at the Cannes Film Festival and will be introduced by Walter Salles. It's part of a screening by the World Cinema Foundation. Here's the link. http://www.festival-cannes.fr/index.php/en/articles/listPressReleases/page/2

party blog

So if anyone is interested quite a few students are drinking tomorrow night in the Plymouth. Its on plymouth and Van Buren and near brown orange and green trains at Library and the red and blue line at Jackson. Its got a pretty cool rooftop garden and plays decent music. So if your interested meet at nine-ish and see you then!!!!

Open for Summer

It seems logical, as many of you have a continuing interest in Brazilian cinema, to keep our blog open for the summer. I'll print out individual posts and keep them in a file at Columbia either way, and as soon as the semester begins, I'll make an executive decision to either retire the blog or to keep it going (depending on interest).

Keep in touch and have a wonderful next few months!

Keeping the Faith

Many of the films we viewed delved into the topic of religion, and how it often attempts to put cultural/society behavior in a box. I found this article interesting about Catholism's slipping hold in Brazil, and how Pope Benedict XVI, and even John Paul II have had issues with Brazil even though it is the country with the largest population of Catholics.


SAO PAULO, Brazil - Pope Benedict XVI is heading to the world's most populous Roman Catholic country at time when evangelical Christians are packing converted storefronts and cavernous churches every Sunday, thrusting their Bibles in the air.

Benedict will try to halt that wave of Protestant fervor during his first trip to Brazil. Aiming to energize its more than 120 million Catholics, Benedict will canonize the country's first native saint, hold Masses that could attract millions and open a conference of Latin American bishops in the holy shrine of Aparecida.

For more on this article visit: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18538967/


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Enjoyed Brazilian Film? Here's a taste of Brazilian television!

I spent almost all of the 80's, watching Brazilian television, so when people initially talked about "The Transformers" or "Thundercats" all I could do was scratch my head. Later on I would find out what those shows were all about, but when it comes to pure nostalgia (at least in the 80's), Brazilian TV is all that does it for me. These were a few insanely popular shows that were shown in Brazil in the 80's (despite them being from Japan, where they were not as successful)...

Notice the theme songs are all in Portuguese.

Jiraya (my personal favorite)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7my-FwsU3U

Jaspion (wait a moment for the sound to come in)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIa4lZw5nyY

Jiban

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGjKffNkJ5M

It's something that I thought I should share, not to mention that it's pure uncut awesomeness.

While the above was Brazilian television at it's absolute highest point (it couldn't get any higher), here is Brazilian telivision today...unfortunately.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ETv4KnlXrk

Central Station aka Central do Brasil

I'm not sure if anyone's posted about this film in the past, but I think people should really take a look at Central Station. I thought it was a very moving film - I happened upon it on comcast on demand in the free movie section a couple of weeks ago. It might still be on there, but if not keep checking back, they have a tendency to put back on previous films (they've put up and taken down Age of Innocence like three times now).

Anywho - the film is directed by Walter Salles and came out in 1998. I think its safe to describe it as an intimate road trip movie, where the further the distance the characters travel, the more they learn about themselves and each other. I dont want to really get into my views on it in case some people havent seen it, but here is a very basic plotline pulled from imdb: "Dora, a dour old woman, works at a Rio de Janeiro central station, writing letters for customers and mailing them. She hates customers and calls them 'trash'. Josue is a 9-year-old boy who never met his father. His mother is sending letters to his father through Dora. When she dies in a car accident, Dora takes Josue and takes a trip with him to find his father. Written by Anonymous"

Check it out - I really liked it even though I watched it at like 3AM

Iracema

I liked this film, although it moved really slow. It seemed to be a hybrid of fiction and documentary. I could tell that the male character Tiao was an actor, but the other people in the movie seemed more natural by the way they talked and interacted. It's not told in a typical documentary way and you can tell that some shots were planned. The documentary part shows how the Transamazonic Highway is affecting the environment and the people. I think they added the fictional element because they wanted to tell a specific story and have the businessman interacting with Iracema.

A Reflection: Iracema

A Reflection: Iracema

There is an undeniable sadness and telling truth about this film. It speaks of the lives of many women and girls who are exploited and demoralized on a daily basis in Brazil. What stands different about Iracema as a film, is the attention and humanization given to the women, specifically the female protagonist. Unlike many of the other female characters we've seen thus far this semester, Iracema, exists as a human being within a larger framework (the displacement and exploitation of the Amazon's people and land for the construction of the Trans-Amazonic highway), instead of simply a fictional figure that exists only within the framework of a male counterpart (husband, lover, or parent).

What is triumphant about Iracema as a whole is its recognition of the true physical and psychological conditions of women and girls in the Amazon region in 1975. Their relentless struggle to survive emotionally and physically is placed on a platform for all to see, which in turn forces others to recognize and respond to the rape, destruction, and diminishing spirit of the mothers, daughters, and sisters of Brazil.

As I prepare for my presentation tomorrow, I realize my goal in exploring the images of women in Brazilian cinema, is not to argue the intentions of filmmakers in their depiction of women within their films, but rather the effects of these images. Specifically how the images of women in Brazilian cinema of the 1950s 60s and 70s has shaped the construction and treatment of Brazilian women in film today.

Brazil to Break AIDS Drug Patent

I came accross this article http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6626073.stm from BBC News about Brazil breaking an AIDS drug patent to provide medication to people with AIDS. This move doesn't just have health impacts, but it also has a tremendous impact economically in the country with foreign investment.

I have been conducting research primarily on AIDS in Africa, and found this topic especially interesting, since it can open the door for other countries to purchase more affordable drugs that the poor simply have been without.

I am interested in learning a bit more about Brazil's healthcare system, especially if they are able to provide free medications.


Here's a blurb from an MSNBC article too:

Ballooning costs
While AIDS activists applauded the move, the U.S.-Brazil Business Council denounced the move as a step backward.

“Just days after Brazil was recognized for improving its enforcement of intellectual property rights, this is a major step backward for the country’s development. Brazil is working to attract investment in innovative industries that rely on IP, and this move will likely cause investments to go elsewhere,” the council said in a statement.

Although Brazil had threatened to bypass drug patents in the past, the country had always reached a last-minute agreement with drug manufacturers.

Brazil provides free AIDS drugs to anyone who needs them and manufactures generic versions of several drugs that were in production before Brazil enacted an intellectual property law in 1997 to join the WTO.

But as newer drugs have emerged, costs ballooned and health officials warned that without deep discounts, they would be forced to issue compulsory licenses.

Efavirenz is used by 75,000 of the 180,000 Brazilians who receive free AIDS drugs from the government. The drug currently costs about the government about $580 per patient per year.

The Health Ministry says that a generic version of efavirenz would save the government some $240 million between now and 2012, when Merck’s patent expires.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Semi-Documentary?

Let me start off by saying that I enjoyed the film, and it had an awesomely weaved story, even though it took a little while for things to get going in the beginning - that's life for yeah.

Although a bit fragmented, the film contained everything you need to tell a compelling story about an individual in object poverty, who is on a drifting path and knows nothing more than to sell herself. It also uses amazing metaphorical elements (whether intentional or unintentional), and that is probably one of the best things I like about this film.

Aside from the obvious name inflections, the Amazon and the Transamazonica project serves as a huge component to the film. It represents a deep fragment of Brazilian history, culture and livelihood, and that very fabric is being torn in half by this new idea of generating revolutionary technological/economic advances that is supposed to create - not destroy connectivity and quality of life.

In a way, the Amazon and the failed project represent Iracema (Edna de Cassia). Her character being indigenous is a reflection of old ways of life in Brazil. She is compromised to be something she probably never was, just as the Amazon was being pillaged and compromised into being something it was not either. Iracema finds herself drifting through just as the Transamazonica project was in terms of construction. She becomes a failure and no longer of interest by Tiao Brasil Grande (Paulo Cesar Pereio), who once hauled lumber from the Amazon, now takes cattle he finds along the road (just as he did with women). Tiao at that point looks more refreshed and is on his way to Acre, where the economic development focus shifted. On the contrary, Iracema is a mess and most of all she doesn’t even know it.

Now onto the main topic I wanted to discuss… Is this a documentary?

Subjectivity was one of the first things I learned about documentaries. People often think that documentaries are supposed to be this genre or form of film that is impeccably truthful and depicts realities in a very direct, but all encompassing way. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Initially, I rejected this notion, but as I became more aware of documentary, I began to see that every documentary is biased, and that there is nothing anyone can do about it. Once you plop a camera down in front of someone, and frame it – it becomes biased. Basic decisions like “what do I shoot?” emerge in every direction at that point.

In doing a bit of research on the film, I found that it did contain actors most notably Paulo Cesar Pereio (Tiao Brasil Grande) and mostly everyone else plays their own character or similar to their own character. The scenes were mainly improvised on the spot, but the story was shaped well before the camera was even turned on.

So with those elements in place, is this a documentary? In my opinion, yes - to some degree. The film did give a realistic view of the Transamazonica and the people it was benefiting and hurting. While shots were clearly constructed, the story behind it was still evolving in front of the camera, and many of the characters were still being themselves in a lot of ways. What is the main thing that separates a documentary from a narrative film? The classification, and an ongoing action that has a certain level of unpredictability. The film was definitely mocking the social and political situations in Brazil, but I did not necessarily get the feeling it was mocking the documentary form on a high enough level to classify this as a mockumentary.

So in all fairness, I will classify this as a semi-documentary.

Let me know your thoughts.

Iracema

I really enjoyed this film, it was full of ironies and contradictions, some comic some bleak. I thought it was great at the start when we are introduced to Iracema and she is at the progression and while the crowd try to get close to the virgin she stands not really moving, being pushed back and forth by religous types desperate for a glance of the virgin. The scene was full of really interesting aesthetics, such as the scene where Taio kicks her out of his truck. She wears a symbol of America, the coca cola shorts but is left alone in a rubbish nightclub. Also it intriuged me how the opening was sprawling and long, with no real story to tell until the second scene when compared to the ending when she fights, ends up in a plantation, is raped and argues with the seamstress in fairly quick sucsession.

The one scene that however stood out was when she bumps into Tiao at the end again. Tiao asks to see her breast and she shows them. There is a shot of the fat woman and the one booted lady play fighting lifting up the fat womans top. While she does that Tiao and Iracema talk about the harbour being built and the future of Brazil. Its as if its saying that people on a working class level need to become politicised. Which would you rather, important political debate or boobs? Its very clever.

Again the depictment of women is poor at best, Iracema starting off as this bubbly woman and while she does do a terrible profession she is totally likeable. She reminds me of Maria Full of Grace, The protagonist there is bubbly and determined and knows the risk of becoming a drug mule with her pregnant but she does so anyway. She has no one to blame if things go wrong but herself. But with Iracema she just seems to get worn down and just accepts the male bullshit. She loses her spunk and it becomes almost heartbreaking to watch.

And again did anyone notice Iracema putting on Beyonces dress? I did. I have proof.

Trying to Understand Cinema Novo

Recently, I have been reading a dissertation about Cinema Novo and Glauber Rocha. As all of you know, it's difficult finding anything written on Brazilian cinema in English or that we have access to. I'm using this is a way to understand the films that were made after the 1964 coup. It has been so difficult for me to understand why some of the films that rely so heavily on allegory became popular.

After watching Cool Ass Family, I began to feel that maybe I have been too close minded. I have always thought of myself as a person who doesn't fall for the typical Hollywood formula. In many ways, I do. I want to be entertained. At the same time, I really search for meaning, being a documentary student. Seeing these films, being denied entrainment, led me to question the roll of cinema. Like Gabe said, there is an intellectual side to filmmaking that is rewarding. Watching Cool Ass Family, I realized that although I really didn't enjoy anything about it, I understand that it is making fun of the whole concept of cinema. I read that Cinema Novo filmmakers believed that cinema is dead unless it changes the world. Reading, listening to Gabe talk about censorship, and participating in the whole group exercise made me realize that they essentially had to make films this way to both, denounce the films that glossed over social issues and also to take political jabs any way that they could. Nelson Pereira Dos Santos once said that he would plan on making a few more films as he addressed the issue of censorship. "If they don't let me make those films, I'll make whatever is possible." It seems almost like filmmakers like Rocha had to make these very abstract films. After all, it wasn't as if he was incapable or disinterested in making films in the neorealist style of Santos' Vidas Secas. Rocha's first film, Barravento, apparently was in that same vein.

In many ways, I'm just beginning to understand and appreciate these films. Unfortunately, it's the end of the semester and it's too late to play catch-up. Regardless, I am beginning to see the importance of these films. Everything that we watched in class dealt with some kind of social issue. What better use of cinema, than to expose injustices and cause change while entertaining us?

Poor turnouts, little blog activity, replacement films, and trivia questions

It is the end of the semester, and I suppose you're all busy finishing final papers and such-- but I was expecting and would have liked to see more blog activity this week.
Just as disappointingly, eighteen of you were no-shows at our Saturday screening. Props to Caitlin, the sole class member who ventured out.
What's the matter, folks? End of semester burnout? Spring weather malaise?
I don't have a remedy for you, alas. I will say, however, that you should try to eat some pineapple. The one Logan gave me to me last week was very ripe and delicious. (Thanks, Logan.)
Announcement: I've decided to replace tomorrow's film, the great Man Marked to Die, with Jorge Bondansky and Orlando Senna's 1976 Iracema, a documentary about the problems surrounding the construction of the Transamazonic Highway. Reasons for the change include the runtime (120 versus 90 minutes) and the range of issues discussed (Man Marked to Die is a much denser work and more difficult to discuss in the short time that we have). Iracema is discussed a number of times in our textbook, and is a key work in Brazilian film history for several reasons I'll be outlining tomorrow.
Oh, and the title Iracema, significantly, is an anagram. Of what?