23–09–2019
Doclisboa’s team in solidarity with Brazilian Cinema
Doclisboa’s team is observing, appalled and revolted, the attacks made by the Brazilian government to the filmmakers in that country, to our colleagues and to the Brazilian independent cinema as a whole.
After cases of censorship, after the announcement of a military cinema programme at the Cinemateca and the inexplicable budget cuts to Ancine, the ever-growing dismantlement of this agency continues, now with the suspension of the support attributed to filmmakers whose films are programmed in international festivals. This measure aims to silence these filmmakers, creating obstacles to their presence in international contexts.
It’s clear that there is an agenda for the elimination of diversity and freedom, aiming at a form of art that is, at its core, popular and democratic: cinema. In Brazil, a dictatorship is being installed – several principals of the rule of law are being explicitly violated. Given this, it’s impossible to remain neutral.
Therefore, Doclisboa declares its rebuttal towards these governmental actions, declaring its full support towards all of our Brazilian colleagues, and announcing an urgent programme that will allow us to debate, think and prepare an active resistance against the dismantlement of democracy in Brazil.
We will present, in the context of a programme centred around Eduardo Coutinho (in partnership with Nitrato Filmes), Twenty Years Later, that brings out the memories of peasant struggles, but also the memory of 1964’s military coup and subsequent dictatorship; Last Conversations, a posthumous film finished by Eduardo Coutinho’s editor, Jordan Berg, in which Coutinho talks with students from the network of public schools in Rio de Janeiro, which ends with him confessing himself to the camera; and A Treat of Coutinho, directed by Josafá Veloso, that kicks off with an interview made with the director, in 2012, as well as a series of archives of his work, to think about the importance of Coutinho today: his memory as necessary resistance.
We will also present Chico: Artista Brasileiro, directed by Miguel Faria Jr.: a film that portrays the life of this great musician and writer, that was removed from a film showcase in Uruguay, out of the demands of representatives of the Brazilian Government in that country.
The film Portraits of Identification, by Anita Leandro, that presents us with a confrontation of pictures – of investigations, interrogations, amongst other situations – that were taken to political prisioners, during the military dictatorship, with the testimony of survivors, was added to the programme of the From the Earth to the Moon section.
As we have already announced, we will present Landless, by Camila Freitas, a harrowing portrayal of the Landless Workers’ Movement, that premiered in Berlinale, as well as the International Premiere of The Last Dream, directed by Alberto Álvares, an invocation of the memory of Guarani Wera Mirim.
With all of these films, we want to remind everyone of the strength of Brazilian cinema, not only in the past but also in present days. We want to share this moment of struggle with all of those that want to resist, and we want to tell the Brazilian Government that tomorrow will be another day – a day built by those who respect democratic values and freedom.
Doclisboa is, and will always be, a safe space for those that work for a free world.