The Brazilian Spiritualist Film: An annotated filmography

• In Event: Remapping Latin American Cinema

Abstract

This paper investigates a cinematic genre often overlooked by Brazilian film scholars: the 'spiritualist film'. Kardecism and its variations have found a welcoming environment in Brazilian society, and the relevance of spiritualism in Brazil has had an impact on a variety of cultural products, such as books, TV soap operas, plays and films. References to Kardecism - and under a broader perspective, spiritualism, often connected to Afro-Brazilian religious traditions – can be found in a significant number of Brazilian films. Luiz de Barros's The Great Grandfather (O Jovem Tataravô, 1936) is just one of the first movies in which the spiritualist doctrine appears in the context of Brazilian local culture, with a humorous twist. The spiritualist film reappears blended with detective story and horror movie in films like Jean Garrett's Thrill (Excitação, 1977) and, more recently, a revival of the Brazilian spiritualist cinema seems to be in progress.

Some recent spiritualist movies - particularly the adaptations of Chico Xavier's best-sellers, as well as films produced by Sidney Girão, such as Bezerra de Menezes: O Diário de um Espírito - have been achieving remarkable commercial success. Amidst this recent wave of spiritualist films, the blend with science fiction imagery and iconography stands out, such as in Wagner de Assis's Our Home (Nosso Lar, 2010) and Gerson Sanginitto's Area Q (2011).

Given the wide acceptance of spiritualism in Brazil, this paper also suggests that this doctrine has been instrumental in order to 'familiarise' Brazilian audiences with putative 'foreign' genres.

Author

• Alfredo Suppia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)