A Century of Brazilian Documentary Film

From Nationalism to Protest

Darlene J. Sadlier

• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781477325254
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Performing Arts

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. The Jungle and the City: Modernity in Two 1920s Documentaries
• Chapter 2. Government Educational Shorts, Bandit Footage, and Vera Cruz Documentaries
• Chapter 3. Documentary and Cinema Novo
• Chapter 4. Documentary, Dictatorship, and Repression
• Chapter 5. Biographies of a Sort, Part I (1974–1989)
• Chapter 6. Documenting Identity
• Chapter 7. Biographies of a Sort, Part II (1994–2016)
• Chapter 8. The City and the Countryside
• Epilogue: A Country in Crisis
• Select Filmography
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index