From the Studio to the Sertão: Four Films by Anselmo Duarte
“Archives in Crises - Insights into Brazilian Cultural Preservation” is a program meant to address the numerous difficulties facing the film preservation industry in Brazil today. Since the beginning of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Cinemateca Brasileira, Brazil’s most important film archive has undergone a complete crisis as the government has stripped the employees of their jobs and salaries, leaving one of the world’s most precious film collections in jeopardy of serious damage. In this program, we’ll be talking a lot about the Cinemateca Brasileira, as archivist Ines Aisengart Menezes sheds light on what the day-to-day workflow was like there over the past four years, while Cinemateca do MAM director Hernani Heffner provides his broader thoughts on the film preservation situation in Brazil.

We’ll also be featuring works that deal with numerous other facets of Brazilian film preservation that have been under-discussed internationally. Professor and archivist Lila Foster will be talking about the home-movie collection of LUPA, the AV preservation section of the Cinema department at Federal Fluminense University. Archivist Débora Butruce provides insights from personal experiences of preserving films and digitally restoring them in Brazil, and archivists Rafael de Luna Freire and Fábio Vellozo present a list of Brazilian films that need preservation attention immediately.

Lastly, this program proudly features free one-month streaming of Carlos Adriano’s 1998 experimental film A Voz e o Vazio: A Vez de Vassourinha (1998), along with a list by and an interview with the director. We present this film about the once-forgotten samba singer Vassourinha with the hopes that it can spark a new conversation about the importance of preserving materials, lest Brazil’s cultural memory become forgotten.
While Brazilian Cinema of the 1960s is best known internationally for the auteur-centric Cinema Novo movement, less celebrated is the wide range of genre filmmaking that was produced during that same decade, including popular comedies, erotic films, and action/crime films (known in Brazil as “Cinema Policial”). Our new program Crime in Rio sheds light onto two of the best urban crime films to come out of Rio de Janeiro in the 60s, Paraíba, Vida e Morte de um Bandido (Lima, 1966) and Os Raptores (Teixeira, 1969). Both of these films were produced by Magnus Filmes, the production company led by the ultimate 60s bad-guy actor, Jece Valadao, whose prolific presence can be felt in both of his roles as an actor and producer. While Cinema Novo filmmakers were committed to revolutionary filmmaking, Valadão was invested in developing Brazilian cinematic crime, a decades-long legacy that is well summarized with the selection of these two works.
Sérgio Ricardo passed away on July 23, at age 88. He left an indelible mark on Brazilian culture, especially as a composer. Songs such as Zelão and Pernas helped define the Bossa Nova era and Brazil’s musical history as a whole, just like that anthological moment when, unable to sing Beto Bom de Bola, he destroyed his guitar onstage at the 3rd TV Record Popular Music Festival, in 1967. Not to mention, of course, the inescapable soundtrack he composed to serve as narration for Black God, White Devil, with lyrics written by director Glauber Rocha. What many don’t know is Sérgio was also a filmmaker. He directed, wrote and scored shorts and feature films which were part of some of the most vibrant moments in Brazil’s cultural history. It’s that part of his work that we at Limite are focusing on in this retrospective. The title we chose came from one of his songs, Vou Renovar, in which he speaks of his art, “whose source is in the people”, a proof of his affiliation and loyalty which is constant in all of his work as well as his life.
Neville D’Almeida’s Jardim de Guerra (1968) is one of the most revolutionary Latin American films of all time. Made during the Brazilian military dictatorship, and in defiance of it, the film exposes the brutal torture and manipulation tactics of the Brazilian military police through a fictional story of love and defiance. Jardim de Guerra was banned and censored in Brazil for many years. The digital copy in this program is the uncut version of the film in a brand new HD digital scan, with new English subtitles by Gustavo Menezes.

Jardim de Guerra features a star-filled cast, including Joel Barcellos, Maria do Rosário, Paulo Villaça, Hugo Carvana, Zózimo Bulbul, Emmanuel Cavalcanti, Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Antonio Pitanga, Nelson Xavier, Guará Rodrigues, and Glauce Rocha. A key factor to the film’s radical style can be attributed to legendary cinematographer Dib Lutfi, who creates a harsh atmosphere with his signature handheld camera and searing black and white cinematography.

Jardim de Guerra is being presented alongside the 2021 REcine International Archive Film Festival.

The film will be available on Cinelimite until October 14th.
Jardim de Guerra (1968), de Neville D'Almeida, é um dos filmes latino-americanos mais revolucionários de todos os tempos. Feito durante a ditadura militar brasileira, em claro desafio ao regime, o filme expõe as brutais táticas de tortura e manipulação da polícia militar brasileira através de uma história fictícia de amor e rebeldia. Jardim de Guerra foi banido e censurado no Brasil por muitos anos. A cópia digital neste programa é a versão sem cortes do filme em um novo scan digital HD, com novas legendas em inglês feitas por Gustavo Menezes.

Jardim de Guerra apresenta um elenco repleto de estrelas, incluindo Joel Barcellos, Maria do Rosário, Paulo Villaça, Hugo Carvana, Zózimo Bulbul, Emmanuel Cavalcanti, Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Antonio Pitanga, Nelson Xavier, Guará Rodrigues e Glauce Rocha. Um fator chave para o estilo radical do filme pode ser atribuído ao lendário cineasta Dib Lutfi, que cria uma atmosfera dura com seu estilo característico de câmera na mão e uma abrasadora fotografia em preto e branco.

Jardim de Guerra está sendo apresentado em parceria com o REcine - Festival Internacional de Cinema de Arquivo.

O filme ficará disponível no Cinelimite até o dia 14 de outubro.

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Special thanks/Agradecimentos especiais: Cavi Borges, Cavideo, REcine International Archive Film Festival, Neville D’Almeida, & Gustavo Menezes
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Our inaugural program “Black Constellations: Zózimo Bulbul and the New Wave of Black Brazilian Cinema” highlights interconnections across the history of Black Brazilian cinema while specifically calling attention to one of Brazil’s most important filmmakers: Zózimo Bulbul. This exciting program features free month-long streaming of Zózimo Bulbul’s Abolição, a film that, in the words of Bernardo Oliveira, brings forth a “cosmos of free associations”. It is this cosmos that we are attempting to tap into with this program, as we only begin to shed new light onto the expansiveness and complexity of Black Cinema in Brazil.
Anselmo Duarte is one of the most iconic figures of Brazilian Cinema. Fulfilling the role between the late 40s and early 60s as the go-to Studio-era actor, Duarte would grace screens across Brazil in numerous commercially successful productions, becoming a major star in the process. Outside of his work as an actor (a vocation he continued to practice until the mid-80s), Duarte is perhaps best known for his Palme d’Or winning 1962 film O Pagador de Promessas, as well as his stylistic and ideological feuds with director Glauber Rocha. However, with From the Studio to the Sertão: Four Films by Anselmo Duarte Cinelimite would like to spark a new conversation about the artist Anselmo Duarte, whose directorial work throughout the late 50s and late 60s we believe to be among the most accomplished and diverse of any Brazilian director during this period. Throughout the four films in this retrospective, which include Absolutamente Certo (1957), O Pagador de Promessas (1962), Vereda da Salvação (1965), and Quelé do Pajeú (1969), viewers will notice Duarte’s sharp attention to detail in mise-en-scène, his inventive uses of film editing, gorgeous cinematography and camera movements, and stories deeply rooted in Brazilian culture. Across these four films, viewers will also encounter a filmmaker undergoing a major transformation from lighthearted themes around a game-show in Absolutamente Certo to religious occultism and sacrifice in Vereda da Salvação.

With the first four films directed by Anselmo Duarte now translated into English, those looking to discover more about Brazilian cinema of the 50s and 60s beyond the Cinema Novo movement should look no further than the work of Anselmo Duarte in this new retrospective.
Anselmo Duarte é uma das figuras mais icônicas do cinema brasileiro. Galã onipresente da era dos estúdios, entre o final dos anos 40 e início dos 60, Duarte marcou presença nas telas de todo o Brasil em numerosas produções de sucesso comercial, tornando-se uma grande estrela no processo. Além do trabalho como ator (que continuou exercendo até meados dos anos 80), Duarte é talvez mais conhecido por sua Palma de Ouro, conquistada com o filme O Pagador de Promessas de 1962, bem como por suas rixas estilísticas e ideológicas com o diretor Glauber Rocha. Entretanto, com Do Estúdio ao Sertão: Quatro filmes de Anselmo Duarte, o Cinelimite gostaria de iniciar uma nova conversa sobre o artista Anselmo Duarte, cujo trabalho de direção ao longo dos anos 50 e 60 acreditamos estar entre os mais qualificados e diversos de qualquer diretor brasileiro do período. Ao longo dos quatro filmes desta retrospectiva, que incluem Absolutamente Certo (1957), O Pagador de Promessas (1962), Vereda da Salvação (1965) e Quelé do Pajeú (1969), os espectadores notarão a atenção aguçada aos detalhes da mise-en-scene de Duarte, seus usos inventivos da montagem, deslumbrantes movimentos de câmera, e histórias profundamente enraizadas na cultura brasileira. Ao longo destes quatro filmes, os espectadores também encontrarão um cineasta que passa por uma grande transformação, indo de temas leves em torno de um game-show de Absolutamente Certo ao ocultismo e o sacrifício religioso de Vereda da Salvação.

Com os primeiros quatro filmes dirigidos por Anselmo Duarte agora traduzidos para o inglês, aqueles que procuram descobrir mais sobre o cinema brasileiro dos anos 50 e 60 além do movimento Cinema Novo não devem olhar mais além da obra de Anselmo Duarte nesta nova retrospectiva.--

Special Thanks/Agradecimentos especiais: Instituto Anselmo Duarte, Daphne Duarte, Ricardo Duarte, Paulo Wences Duarte, Octavio Monteagudo, Paulo Scarpa, and Matheus Pestana.
The World Seen and Dreamt: A Collection of Films from Espirito Santo presents a historical panorama of the cinema produced in this southeastern state of Brazil from the perspective of preservation initiatives. The nine programmed films draw a pioneering trajectory with highlights such as the initiatives of Ludovico Persici, in the 1920s, and the generation of the Amateur Cinema Cycle in the 1960s. In this program, we're presenting the only titles that are accessible today from the Amatuer Cinema Cycle. One of these films, the documentary Cirurgia do Coração no Espírito Santo (Heart Surgery in Espírito Santo)(1967) is being shown for the first time in digital format.Only discovered in the 2000s but filmed almost one hundred years ago, Persici's images were given the title

Cenas de Família (Family Scenes) after the restoration was complete. However, the film more specifically presents a variety of situations, landscapes, and characters throughout a train trip through the interior of Espírito Santo. Its people, landscapes, and social and political formation would become the subject for a series of documentaries directed by Orlando Bomfim Netto, of whom we are presenting two productions that were filmed in the 1970s and restored in 2017. Relying on public incentives, a generation of young filmmakers would emerge in the 1980s who would help spark new styles of cinematographic language, create new modes of production, and build an authorial filmography in 16mm and 35mm. These filmmakers would forge careers for themselves with the participation of their films in short film festivals in the 1990s and 2000s. This 80s generation will arrive at feature filmmaking together with another emerging generation of the 2010s, whose careers began during the emergence of digital filmmaking technology. This program will feature three iconic films from this late generation of filmmakers, works that stood out in three different decades and that reaffirmed the position of Espírito Santo in the larger trajectory of Brazilian cinema.
O Mundo Visto e Sonhado: Uma coleção de filmes do Espírito Santo apresenta um panorama histórico do cinema produzido neste estado da região sudeste do Brasil, a partir da perspectiva de iniciativas de preservação. Os nove filmes selecionados desenham uma trajetória de pioneirismos em que se destacam alguns pontos incontornáveis, como as iniciativas de Ludovico Persici nos anos de 1920 e a geração do Movimento de Cinema Amador, na década de 1960. Deste ciclo de curtas-metragens, nós disponibilizamos os únicos filmes que atualmente encontram-se acessíveis. Sendo um deles o documentário: Cirurgia do Coração no Espírito Santo (1967), que está sendo exibido pela primeira vez em formato digital.Descobertas somente nos anos 2000 mas filmadas há quase cem anos, após serem restauradas, as imagens de Persici receberam o título de

Cenas de Família. No entanto, o filme apresenta uma variedade de situações, paisagens e personagens, ao longo de uma viagem de trem pelo interior do Espírito Santo. O povo, a paisagem e a formação político-social da sociedade capixaba viriam a ser o tema de uma série de documentários dirigidos por Orlando Bomfim Netto, de quem exibiremos duas produções, filmadas na década de 1970 e restauradas em 2017. Apoiando-se em incentivos públicos, uma geração de jovens cineastas surgiria nos anos de 1980, de modo que ajudaram a desencadear novos estilos de linguagem cinematográfica, criando assim, novos modos de produção e a construção de uma filmografia autoral em 16 mm e 35 mm. Esses cineastas criaram as suas próprias carreiras através da participação dos seus filmes em festivais de curtas-metragens, nos anos 90 e 2000. Essa geração oitentista alcançou a realização de longas-metragens com outra geração emergente dos anos de 2010, cujas carreiras começaram durante o surgimento da tecnologia de produção de filmes digitais. Em nossa atual programação, exibiremos três filmes icônicos dessa geração de cineastas. Obras que marcaram presença em três décadas diferentes e que reafirmam a posição do Espírito Santo na trajetória do cinema brasileiro.

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Special thanks/Agradecimentos especiais:  Matheus Pestana, Mathew Plotnick, Diego Zon, Ramon Alvarado, NENNA, Luís Fernando Moura, Margarete Taqueti, Erly Vieira Jr., Paulo Scarpa, Arquivo Público do Estado do Espírito Santo (APEES), Vitor Graize, Acervo Capixaba, and Pique-Bandeira Filmes.