Cinema Novo

An original take on one of the most influential film movements in recent history. The French new wave caused many ripples throughout world cinema in the nineteen-sixties. In Brazil, a youthful group of journalists, filmmakers and intellectuals started a new movement, “Cinema Nôvo”, “the new cinema”. These cinephiles had an ambition to create a synthesis between the artistic avant-garde and Brazilian folklore, Russian revolutionary film and American cinema of distractions.

This documentary lets us hear from all of the movements central figures: Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Glauber Rocha, Leon Hirszman, Joachim Pedro de Andrade and many more. These young filmmakers were in many ways more militant than their French forebears. Their wish was to provide individuals on the margins of society a place on screen: Peasants from the arid nordoste region, workers, youths and ethnic minorities - outcasts caught up in Brazils rapid modernization process. They combined documentary-style realism with surrealism, myths and symbols, endowing their films with biting social critique.

This documentary adopts an unconventional method, avoiding “talking heads”, and favouring an impressionistic, almost poetic approach to the subject matter. The film uncovers different aspects of Cinema Novo while mirroring the films it depicts, thus imparting some of the groundbreaking energy and novelty this movement represented at the time. This moving tribute was produced by Dos Santos’ son and directed by Glauber Rocha’s own son Eryk. It had its world premiere under the Cannes Classics sidebar in 2016, and won the Golden Eye prize for best documentary. Chloe Faulkner

Eryk Rocha (b. 1978) is a Brazilian film director. He studied cinema at the San Antonio de Los Baños School in Cuba, where he produced his first feature film Rocha que voa (2002). Before making Cinema novo in 2016, he directed the 2014 documentary Sunday Ball, a homage to football. He is the son of the legendary Brazilian director Glauber Rocha.

Chloe Faulkner

AN INTRODUCTION TO CINEMA NÔVO

Before the screening on October 12 at 6 pm, Chloé Faulkner from The Norwegian Federation of Film Societies will introduce the Cinema Nôvo wave of Brazilian Cinema in the 1960s, and guide you through the film history of the years that revolutionized Brazilian film.