Pernambuco’s “New Cinema”: Class, Social Differences, and Everyday Life

• In Event: Social Evaluations and Transitions in Latin American Film

Abstract

The last few years saw the growth of a vibrant independent cinema in the northeast of Brazil, more specifically in the state of Pernambuco, where a new generation of filmmakers is changing the region’s cinematic landscape. In a province where film production was somewhat erratic throughout the twentieth century, this newly found vitality would constitute a worthy subject in its own right. But it is not just the strength of film production that deserves attention in this context. The films themselves represent some of the most ambitious and innovative efforts to assess contemporary life in Brazil. As critics have pointed out, what we are watching is a sort of “rebirth” of political filmmaking. Since the 1970s, in the wake of Cinema Novo, Brazilian filmmakers have struggled to redefine political cinema, oscillating between didactic proselytism and (more recently) facile narrative formulas. The cinema of Pernambuco avoids both paths, opting instead for a rigorous exploration of everyday life, with an emphasis on social relations and class differences. This paper turns to this emphasis on the everyday as locus of social exchange in order to discuss what this “rebirth” of political filmmaking means both to Brazilian cinema and to local filmmaking in the northeast. It also examines how this kind of work departs from earlier examples of socially responsible cinema. Finally it explores a potential dialogue between the films from Pernambuco and contemporary world cinema, where urban settings and everyday life also provide a basis for political filmmaking.

Author

• Vinicius D Navarro, Emerson College