A century of Brazilian documentary film : from nationalism to protest

Since the late nineteenth century, Brazilians have turned to documentaries to explain their country to themselves and to the world. In a magisterial history covering one hundred years of cinema, Darlene J. Sadlier identifies Brazilians’ unique contributions to a diverse genre while exploring how that genre has, in turn, contributed to the making and remaking of Brazil. __A Century of Brazilian Documentary Film__ is a comprehensive tour of feature and short films that have charted the social and political story of modern Brazil. The Amazon appears repeatedly and vividly. Sometimes—as in a prize-winning 1922 feature—the rainforest is a galvanizing site of national pride; at other times, the Amazon has been a focus for land-reform and Indigenous-rights activists. Other key documentary themes include Brazil’s swings from democracy to dictatorship, tensions between cosmopolitanism and rurality, and shifting attitudes toward race and gender. Sadlier also provides critical perspectives on aesthetics and media technology, exploring how documentaries inspired dramatic depictions of poverty and migration in the country’s Northeast and examining Brazilians’ participation in streaming platforms that have suddenly democratized filmmaking. "This is the first book to provide a comprehensive study of Brazilian documentary filmmaking, covering roughly a century of material. In the 1920s, these films were relatively simple and depicted national festivals, commemorations of historical events, the country's natural resources, as well as its modernization of the city landscape. Over time, however, they developed to cover a variety of topics and perspectives with a greater complexity when necessary. Beginning with No país das Amazonas, one of the first films to document the Amazonian rainforest and its indigenous inhabitants, Sadlier examines the use of documentary films for propaganda purposes, the repression or destruction of certain films during dictatorial regimes, how they could be used for social criticism or to bring to light notable individuals, and the use of modern technology to bring the possibilities of documentary filmmaking into the hands of everyone through social media. Moving more or less chronologically, she is also able to use the films as a way to explore a century of Brazilian history and culture"-- Provided by publisher