Impact case study database
Brazilian Film History and Intermediality: Inspiring Audiences, Artists and Cultural Institutions to reconnect the arts, media and film
1. Summary of the impact
In the early 1990s, the Brazilian film production industry had effectively shut down. Just a few years later it had recovered to become the burgeoning industry it is today. Lucia Nagib’s Intermedial History of Brazilian Cinema (Intermldia Project) rediscovers and retells the story of the many political struggles and artistic conquests of this national industry. Using a pioneering, inclusive and democratic ‘intermedial’ approach – the combination of multiple arts and media with film – Nagib’s project has influenced the programming of international cultural institutions and individual creative practices. Rediscovering the past and present of Brazilian cinema has prompted leading practitioners to engage with intermediality as a window to a country’s social reality, inspiring new understanding of how cinema relates to other art forms and helping bridge the divide between the film industry and academia.
2. Underpinning research
The underpinning research was carried out as part of an AHRC/FAPESP-funded project ‘ Towards an Intermedial History of Brazilian Cinema’ (IntermIdia, 1 October 2015 – 31 July 2019). The project brought together 12 academics from the UK (University of Reading) and Brazil (Federal University of São Carlos) with complementary interdisciplinary profiles. The aim was to produce a new intermedial history of Brazilian cinema, exploring the relationship between cinema and other arts and media, including theatre, music, literature, visual arts, radio and television. Building on Nagib’s previous research (output 1) and drawing for the first time on intermediality as a historiographic method, the project has identified and analysed the rich, but often neglected contribution made by these other art and medial forms to some of the most creative moments in Brazil’s film history. Significantly, it has demonstrated that the intermedial method can offer a more inclusive way of engaging with the history of a national cinema.
Two key intermedial phenomena are particularly relevant here: the “Tropicália” cinematic outputs of the 1960s–80s; and the Brazilian film revival from the 1990s onwards, which saw the birth of the “árido movie/manguebeat” movement. Nagib’s research into the Tropicália movement culminated in a film season at Tate Modern, London, in November 2017, curated by Stefan Solomon (post-doctoral research assistant on the IntermIdia Project), involving celebrated artists such as Antônio Pitanga, Camila Pitanga and Ana Vaz. A substantial book edited by Solomon (output 2) accompanied the event at the Tate Modern, and a dossier of papers on Tropicalism in Brazilian cinema, originally presented at the 2016 Screen Studies conference, was published in the leading peer-reviewed journal Screen (output 3). The Tate event included an exhibition of Hélio Oiticica’s immersive art experiments, Tropicália, Penetrables PN 2 & PN 3, from the Tate’s collection, to coincide with the weekend of film screenings. The research established connections between the original movement of the 1960s and ‘70s and more recent work that resonated powerfully with artists, filmmakers and programmers alike.
Another major IntermIdia output was the feature-length documentary film Passages, directed by Nagib and Samuel Paiva (output 4). The film, and the essays which inspired it (outputs 5 and 6) showcase a selection of Brazilian films in which intermedial devices; including music, literature, theatre, painting and radio, function as a “passage” to political and social reality. These films are interwoven with 15 interviews featuring internationally acclaimed practitioners from the Brazilian film industry, including Fernando Meirelles, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Lírio Ferreira, Tata Amaral and Marcelo Gomes, whose careers developed during the 1990s Brazilian Film Revival. Passages focuses on two specific states in Brazil: São Paulo (in the South-East) and Pernambuco (in the North-East), which are approximately 2,000km apart, but which bridged their geographic and economic gulf by means of a fruitful cinematic and artistic collaboration. Some of the works explored in Passages reflect on the military dictatorship of the 1960s and ‘70s. Parallels with the present political situation in the country are registered strongly in the film and elicited enthusiastic responses from the audiences, as they found themselves inspired politically and aesthetically.
3. References to the research
The research meets the threshold for 2* originality, significance and rigour. It resulted from a competitive, peer-reviewed funding application; it was published in peer-reviewed books and journals. It is a recognised point of reference for Brazilian film history and develops new thinking in relation to how the intermedial method can offer a more inclusive way of engaging with the history of a nation’s cinematic history.
Nagib, L. and Jerslev, A. (eds.) (2014), Impure Cinema: Intermedial and Intercultural Approaches to Film. London/New York, I.B. Tauris, ISBN 9781780765112
Solomon, S. (ed.) (2017). Tropicália and Beyond: Dialogues in Brazilian Film History. Berlin: Archive Books. ISBN 978-3943620-72-6.
Nagib, L. and Solomon, S. (eds.) (2019). Dossier ‘Intermediality in Brazilian Cinema: The Case of Tropicália’, including papers by A. Butler, A. Elduque, S. Solomon and L. Nagib, and an Introduction by L. Nagib and S. Solomon. Screen, 60 (1), Spring, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjy064
Nagib, L. and Paiva, S. (2019) Passages (Documentary Feature Film, UK, 94min): https://vimeo.com/359254604 , password: Passageseng
Nagib, L. (2018). ‘Passages: Travelling in and out of film through Brazilian Geography’, Rumores 24 (12), July-December, pp. 19-40. DOI:10.11606/ISSN.1982-677X.rum.2018.148836
Nagib, L. (2020). Realist Cinema as World Cinema: Non-cinema, Intermedial Passages, Total Cinema. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, Chapter 7. ISBN 978946298751
4. Details of the impact
The Intermldia Project has told the story of the political struggles and artistic conquests of the Brazilian film industry by drawing on key moments of intermedial practice in the country’s film history, including the “Tropicália ” movement of the 1960s–70s and the “árido movie/manguebea t” movement of the 1990s. Thinking about how these creative peaks resonate today is particularly relevant in the face of threats to artistic freedom posed by Brazil’s current government.
- Raising the national and international public profile of Brazilian cinema
The IntermIdia Project has raised international demand for Brazilian film and culture, placing it within a wider political context. Audiences, both national and international, were encouraged to reflect on the importance of cinema’s dialogue with other arts and media, and how a nation’s film history develops in tandem with political events. This took spectacular form following the Tate’s “Tropicália” season, where a 498-strong audience demonstrated increased awareness and engagement with the ways Brazilian cinematic history has influenced contemporary art and culture (E1, E2). Feedback was wide-ranging and enthusiastic, but a more visceral response happened at the event itself, where renowned cineaste Noilton Nunes made a passionate speech about Brazil’s political situation and its film industry (E3).
Passages (output 3) was awarded the prize of Best Documentary in the International Competition at the 13th Los Angeles Brazilian Film Festival. It was also selected for screening at the São Paulo, Rotterdam, Gothenburg and Janela international film festivals, receiving great critical acclaim (E4) from audiences and curators. Audience members commented on the film’s resonance with the country’s current political situation (E5, E6). Passages also led to an increased appreciation of the significant artistic relationship between the two distinct regions of Pernambuco and São Paulo in film history and practice (E5, E6).
B. Impact on international commercial programming and distribution
The IntermIdia Project has revealed the influence of Tropicália on, and through, cinema; the movement was previously chiefly associated with music and the plastic arts. The “Tropicália season” as a curatorial intervention resulted in the Tate Modern re-opening Hélio Oiticica’s artworks T ropicália, Penetrables PN 2 ‘Purity is a myth’ and PN 3 ‘Imagetical’, which gave rise to the movement. This was the first time the works had been exhibited to the public since their acquisition by the Tate in 2007. As a result of the Tropicália season, Solomon was invited to curate a section at the 23rd International Film Festival of Kerala (India) and join the panel ‘Curating Zeitgeist 1968’ in São Paulo, with funding from the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) and the British Council. The work has also influenced the very screening methods used to show cinematic material. For example, the Tropicália season at the Tate influenced subsequent curation of Glauber Rocha’s landmark film, The Age of the Earth (1967): at the Filmoteca Española (Madrid) the film was, for the very first time, screened using a random order of reels determined by the projectionist at each screening. This approach – originally recommended by Rocha himself – followed the example set by the Tate show (E7, E8). The impact of Passages can also be seen in the commercial response: major international distribution companies, including O2 Filmes (Brazil), Aspect Ratio (US/Canada), Filmocracy (US) and Antidote (Russia/Europe) all bid to purchase the rights to disseminate it through arthouse venues, educational institutions and online platforms (E9). Discussions regarding this are still ongoing.
- Impact on Brazilian film professionals
The production of Passages was innovative in breaking down barriers between academia and the filmmaking industry, at an international level. Interviews with filmmakers and professionals highlight how Passages deepened engagement between them. They emphasise how valuable it was to see their works scrutinised in depth by academics and articulated in a widely accessible form (E10). Several high-profile Brazilian artists and curators involved with Passages were challenged to reflect on their own practice and use of intermediality in their work. Fernando Meirelles observed: “Most of my films come from literature, but I had never thought about why I make films from books and how I adapt them” (E10). Other filmmakers stressed the importance of Passages to their own creative process, and how their future work will reflect it. Filmmakers Paulo Caldas, Renata Pinheiro and Beto Brant, editor Vânia Debs, producer João Vieira Jr. and curator Ana Farache all highlighted how Passages is ground-breaking in bringing together academia, the film producing community and society (E10). Tata Amaral commented: “Publications are the traditional way of conveying research, but a film is more communicative. I think this is a great initiative that should be followed” (E10).
The Intermldia Project has produced a new historiography of Brazilian cinema which has impacted on public and commercial programming worldwide and enabled those involved in the Brazilian film industry to reflect on their own creative practice and engagement with intermedial methods. It has brought together academia, the film producing community and the general public in a way that has not been done before and provided a narrative of the Brazilian film industry’s struggle for survival in the 1990s which has clear resonance with the political situation in the country today.
5. Sources to corroborate the impact
Audience survey responses from Tropicália and Beyond.
Tropicália Season Impact Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=ta8PPAb3gD0&feature=emb_logo (transcript also supplied as a PDF).
Social Media from Tropicália and Beyond including coverage of Noilton Nunes event and posts by Camilla Pitanga.
Press coverage for Passages.
Audience survey responses from Passages.
Passages impact video – public debate and audience testimonials at the São Paulo International Film Festival: https://vimeo.com/384316905
Details of Tate screening of Age of Earth as part of the Tropicália and Beyond season: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/film/tropicalia-and-beyond-dialogues-brazilian-film-history/hunger-absolute (also supplied as a PDF file).
Filmoteca Española programme details.
Correspondence with potential distributors of Passages: O2 Filmes, Brazil; Aspect Ratio films, USA; Antidote Films, Russia.
Passages impact video – interviews with film practitioners: https://vimeo.com/384314406
Additional contextual information
Grant funding
| Grant number | Value of grant |
|---|---|
| AH/M008363/1 | £718,139 |