Mapping Brazil - Cinema: Artistic Diversity Behind the Figures I

Mapping regional agents and talents
A new survey of Brazil's Creative Economy published this year highlights the audiovisual industry as one of the leaders in terms of numbers employed and salaries or earnings. However, Brazilian cinema cannot live on figures alone. Talents have emerged over the last few years and new films – no longer made only in Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo – have posed new experiments with the language and earned accolades at all festivals where they have been featured.

Policies that have successfully diversified investments and democratized access to funding across different regions fostered cinematic activities that are now ongoing everywhere in Brazil. In many of these regions, there are also arrangements between public entities and private agents from various segments of the cinema industry such as theatres, production companies, events, cultural centres, schools or courses.

Another point is shown by the following survey of the role of festivals and other markets in Brazil's cinema industry. These events provide privileged spaces for both artistic and industry interchanges and trades. Many of them have consolidated as major international references in their segments. These projects are also building an alternative cultural circuit for many films not normally exhibited in theatres while also creating new environments that favour meetings, seminars, and film-lab events.

The Northeast
Being a source of numerous stories and people that have marked our history, Brazil's Northeast has always been important for Brazilian cinema and no discussion of cinema in the country today could ignore it.

Since 2003, the Department of Culture of the state of Pernambuco and FUNDARPE have taken ongoing policy measures to sustain a fruitful environment for local cinema. In recent years, audiovisual initiatives too have benefited under ANCINE's regionalization policy since the Audiovisual Fund (FSA) provides facilities to encourage decentralized audiovisual production hubs that may be combined with those available under regional policies.

On the festival front, CinePE – Festival Audiovisual has been held 19 times and today is one of the most important in the region, while Janela Internacional de Cinema de Recife has established its role as a showcase for new talents. The city of Recife's leading institutional venues for film and cinema events include Fundação Joaquim Nabuco and Cinema São Luiz, a theatre built in 1952 that has been heritage listed by the state government and is one of Brazil's grandest non-mall theatres on the northeastern art-film circuit.

Note that one of the "resurgence period" films that made a big impression on audiences and critics alike came from Recife, namely Baile Perfumado (Perfumed Ball) (1997), by Lírio Ferreira and Paulo Caldas. The 2000s saw another new director emerge there: Marcelo Gomes whose Cinema, aspirinas e urubus (Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures) (2005) premiered internationally for the Cannes Festival's Un Certain Regards selection. Standouts among the current generation of filmmakers include director Kleber Mendonça Filho, whose O Som ao Redor (Neighbouring Sounds) (2012) premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival, earned an award from the International Federation of Film Critics – FIPRESCI, enjoyed an exceptional festival career, and ranked among the best of 2012 by The New York Times. Directors Gabriel Mascaro and Camilo Cavalcante also have a consistent track record of shorts and features at various European festivals and their latest films Ventos de Agosto (August Winds) (2014) and História da Eternidade (The History of Eternity) (2014) garnered awards and favourable reviews.

An important film-video centre in Pernambuco has sought to avoid this direct relationship with the market. The project Vídeo nas Aldeias [Video in Villages] was started by Vincent Carelli in the late 1980s with its focus on research and documentation. Over the years, its contacts with native Indian villages have deepened from documenting to actually interacting. A lot of material was initially shot on film, but audiovisual language evolved and many of the projects films have won awards at festivals around the world.

Again, in the Northeast, the state of Bahia is an obligatory mention for all the talents produced there, such as Glauber Rocha, Geraldo Sarno, Walter da Silveira and Orlando Senna, as well as successive cohorts of actors injecting new life into Brazilian cinema. To name just a few major figures from the 1960s and 70s, Antônio Pitanga, Helena Ignez and Othon Bastos were part of Cinema Novo and are still active today. Over the last decade, outstanding new actors have included Lázaro Ramos, whose debut film directed by Karim Ainouz cast him as the legendary figure from Rio de Janeiro named Madame Satã (Madam Satan) (2002). Since then, Ramos has been in many leading Brazilian films as well as telenovelas (soaps). This is also the case of Wagner Moura, another actor from Bahia, whose Captain Nascimento character in Elite Squad (2007, José Padilha) and a resoundingly successful sequel earned him a prominent place in the world of entertainment.                                                                                                                                                    

The state of Ceará has also been noted over the last few years for the state government's more far-reaching initiatives and local funding articulated with federal sources. Today's most widely known director from Ceará is Karin Ainouz; his early films were made elsewhere, but his latest, Praia do futuro (Future Beach) (2014), was shot in Fortaleza and Germany. Along with Sergio Machado from Bahia and Marcelo Gomes from Recife, Karim heads Laboratório de Audiovisual – Cinema, an important initiative for artistic education and creative work run by the art school Porto Iracema das Artes, which in turn is hosted by Centro Dragão do Mar de Arte e Cultura, Fortaleza's leading cultural centre. The audiovisual laboratory hosts internationally renowned directors and aims to develop scripts for feature films irrespective of genre, while covering different aspects of screenwriting too.

On the production side, a collective named Alumbramento has been in prominent attendance at events and festivals. One of their most remarkable films, Estrada para Ythaca (Road to Ythaca) (Ricardo Pretti, Luiz Pretti, Guto Parente, Pedro Diógenes) took several awards at the Tiradentes festival and has been shown internationally at the Viennale, BAFICI, and festivals in Spain, Russia, Estonia etc. Their trilogy titled Operação Sonia Silk (Operation Sonia Silk) was co-produced by Rio de Janeiro-based DAZA Produções and director Bruno Safadi.

On the event side, Cine Ceará – Ibero-Americano, the most important film festival in the Northeast and one of the longest running, is currently held at Cine São Luiz, a restored non-mall theatre in Fortaleza. The festival's original scope was local video; however, it has broadened to become an Iberian-American event that includes education and training for audiovisual research, production and outreach. This year's iteration of the festival also featured the first Ceará Audiovisual Market which led to more industry professionals and public-sector managers getting involved, thus creating a more favourable environment for the expansion of the audiovisual industry in the state of Ceará.

The Midwest and Brasilia
A little more to the southwest, Brazil's Midwest has seen local director Adirley Queirós reach prominence. His most recent films A cidade é uma só? (Hood Movie: Is the City One Only?) (2013) and Branco sai, preto fica (White Out, Black In) (2015) were made in low-income neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Brasilia with expressive formats featuring experimental aesthetics. Both titles and their director have prompted discussion and earned awards whenever they have been featured.

Another of the region's highlights is the Brasilia Festival of Brazilian Cinema, one of Brazil's longest-running and most important events, to be held for the 48^th time in 2015. Its selection criteria include new aesthetic, narrative and thematic directions in an attempt to offer a different take on Brazil's film production.

The North and the Amazon
As former Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil noted in the abovementioned speech, the Amazon region has great natural and cultural wealth. There is increasingly more local and international interest in attractive locations for audiovisual productions. Catering for this demand and working to ensure feasibility for these projects by providing institutional support is the Amazonas Film Commission, which belongs to the Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI) and the Brazilian Film Commission Alliance (ABRAFIC). Among Brazil's production companies, Rio Tarumã Films has recently been noticed at local and international festivals. Its A floresta de Jonathas (Jonathas´ Forest), directed by Sergio Andrade, tells the story of a character whose existential drama leads him to discover the exuberance of the Amazon region. Rio Tarumã Films is a major local collaborator for Brazilian and international productions. In addition to its own projects, it has developed partnerships with other companies, including Blue Eye Films, Bananeira Filmes, the BBC, National Geographic, Animal Planet, PBS, Survivor (CBS), for films such as Diários da motocicleta (The Motorcycle Diaries) (2006, Walter Salles), Onde andará Dulce Veiga? (2008, Guilherme Almeida Prado), and A festa da menina morta (The Dead Girl’s Feast) (2009, Matheus Nachtergaele).

All of which shows that it is not easy to sum up Brazil’s cinema and its agents, products and events in a nutshell, given its huge scale and significance for Brazilian culture. The industry is currently in great shape, with consistent policies and agents ready to tackle its challenges, with new companies being opened and new talents emerging. Paraphrasing the Italian director Federico Fellini, And the Ship Sails On...

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