Braaaasiiiil

21 january, 2008 - 28 february, 2008
Place
Sabatini Building, Auditorium
Joaquim Pedro de Andrade. Macunaíma, 1969
Joaquim Pedro de Andrade. Macunaíma, 1969

Brazil was a colony for nearly 300 years and its cultural and ethnic past is the result of the blending of cultures. Today we ask: does colonisation give rise to an intellectual orientation that is always looking back? Why do we continue to look to the past, searching for the consequences of power relationships that, apparently, do not concern the world today? Braaaasiiiil tackles these questions by immersing itself in Brazil’s culture and hundred-year-old film tradition, which has engaged intensely with the history of the conquest, the colonisation process, immigration and modernity since the 1930s.

The programme is made up of 17 pieces: Diário de Sintra (2007) by Paula Gaitán (Paris, 1952) and Brilhante (2003) by Conceição Senna (Valente, 1937) are two documentaries about pivotal filmmakers and students of Brazilian culture; Brasil: a revolução tropicalista (Dominique Dreyfus and Yves Billon, 2002) investigates ‘tropicalism’, “which detonated a revolution in the customs, thought and very idea of Brazilian identity;” the short film Brasília, contradições de uma cidade nova (1967) by Joaquim Pedro de Andrade (Rio de Janeiro, 1932-1988) and the documentary A vida é um sopro (2007) by Fabiano Maciel (Porto Alegre, 1965), dedicated to the 100-year-old architect Oscar Niemeyer, both reflect on the urban character that Brazilian society has acquired since the 1950s. Directors Emmanuelle Bernard (Nice, 1967) and André Blas (Minas Gerais, 1967) present a light-hearted portrait of the inhabitants of the Copan Building in São Paulo, designed by Niemeyer. The programme could not omit the cult film Macunaíma, “the story about a Brazilian devoured by Brazil” by Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, perhaps the only director familiar to Spanish audiences. Finally, the programme features the Spanish première of the latest work by Sylvio Back (Blumenau, 1937), who will present the film Lost Zweig, about the last days of Stefan Zweig, who committed suicide with his young wife after the Rio de Janeiro carnival.

Paisajes, a video series curated by Vitoria Daniela Bousso, brings together a group of fourteen Brazilian artists from different generations, from Éder Santos (Belo Horizonte, 1960) to Milena Travassos (Recife, 1976).

The programme is capped off by a concert by Jorge Antunes (Rio de Janeiro, 1942) in collaboration with the CMDC (Centre for the Diffusion of Contemporary Music) and two performance pieces: Juego de manos by Michel Groisman (Rio de Janeiro, 1972) and Y pasa by Beth Moysés (São Paulo, 1960), produced by the audiovisual department.