Brazil: A Report on Torture

Last updated
Brazil: A Report on Torture
Directed by Haskell Wexler, Saul Landau
Edited by Robert Estrin

Brazil: A Report on Torture is a 1971 documentary film directed by Haskell Wexler and Saul Landau. [1] The film had its premiere on October 21, 1971 at the Whitney Museum in New York City. [2]

Contents

The documentary tells the story of Brazilians who were tortured while imprisoned in Brazil and were then living in exile in Chile. It is the first film to document such torture in Latin America. [3]

Synopsis

The film features interviews conducted with 17 of the 70 Brazilians brought to Chile in January of that year as part of an exchange for the Swiss ambassador Giovanni Bucher, who was kidnapped the month before in Rio de Janeiro by the armed guerilla group VPR (Popular Revolutionary Vanguard). In addition to testimonies, reenactments are conducted by the former prisoners which demonstrate the cruelty suffered—including the use of the pau de arara method. [4]

Release

The film premiered at the Whitney Museum in New York City on October 21, 1971, where it was accompanied by an interview with Salvador Allende, the 29th President of Chile. Later that same year it was broadcast on WNET, followed by a discussion that included the scholar Alfred Stepan. [5]

In August 2012 Brazil: A Report on Torture was broadcast on Brazilian television, marking its television broadcast debut in Brazil. [6] It also received a screening at the Instituto Moreira Salles in Rio de Janeiro in November 2012, followed by a discussion including subjects interviewed in the film. [7] [8] This marked the first time that some of the film's participants had seen the film in its entirety. [7]

The Brazilian diplomat Jom Tob Azulay held a private screening of the film for Brazilian performers Antônio Carlos Jobim and Elis Regina in the 1970s, which led to him being persecuted by Brazil's military government as a result. [9] [10] He later commented on the film's obscurity in Brazil, stating that it was "unbelievable" and was likely due to the "repressed society" and the effect that the "veil of forgetfulness plays on torture". [10]

Reception

In a 2012 review in Piauí magazine, film director and editor Eduardo Escorel was extremely critical of the movie, criticizing Wexler and Landau for staging re-enactments of torture with the former torture victims, which he felt showed a "total lack of restraint, decorum and modesty". Escorel went on to say that this, along with other criticisms, "might explain why it was so many years in obscurity." [11]

In contrast, film historians James and Sara T. Combs felt that the movie was an "excellent example of the "appeal to conscience"" and the movie has received praise from diplomat Jom Tob Azulay. [4] [10] The film was also honored in a 2014 film festival at the Brazilian Consulate in New York and was featured in the 2015 documentary Rebel Citizen , directed by Pamela Yates. [12] [13]

Related Research Articles

Regina Duarte Brazilian actress

Regina Blois Duarte is a Brazilian actress who briefly served as Special Secretary of Culture, a cabinet position in President Jair Bolsonaro's federal administration, from March to May 2020.

Jom Tob Azulay Filmmaker and diplomat, born in Rio de Janeiro (1941). From 1971 to 1974 serves as deputy-consul of Brazil in Los Angeles while attending courses in film technique, history and aesthetics at University of Southern California (UCS), UCLA and California Institute of the Arts. Becomes familiar with the technique and aesthetics of direct-cinema in 16mm, which at the time became dominant in the production of the Documentary and which he considers appropriate for the development of an independent cinema in Brazil, including fiction. In 1972 takes a course with Hollywood’s highly influential Slavko Vorkapich on Film as a Visual Art. In 1973, the experience of filming with Brazilian director of photography Fernando Duarte the recording of the LP Tom & Ellis will be decisive for the outcome of his future projects of musical documentaries in Brazil. In Los Angeles he is acquainted with the film Brazil: Report on Torture, a documentary about torture during the Brazilian military regime made in Chile by Haskell Wexler and Saul Landau (1971), which he helps to publicize clandestinely in Brazil and in the US. In 1975 he resigns for political reasons from the Ministry of Foreign Relations. Still in Los Angeles, he meets the Brazilian world-known filmmaker Alberto Cavalcanti (1897-1982) with whom he would later work influencing him in his conception of cinema. Returning to Brazil in 1974, he produces with the support of state-owned Embrafilme Um Homem e o Cinema, Cavalcanti`s last work, and makes his first films as photographer-director: the medium-length documentary Exu Mangueira (1975) and the short Euphrasia (1975). Both point to his future aesthetic and thematic inclinations: the immediate rouchian apprehension of reality of direct-cinema and the reconstitution of the historical past. In 1975, he is one of the first to use portable-video equipment in Brazil, photographing video-art works by Rio de Janeiro's prominent plastic artists, as Annabela Geiger and Fernando Cochiaralli. His first feature films, The Sweet Barbarians about famed Caetano Velloso, Maria Bethania, Gilberto Gil and Gal Costa and Heart Pounding Beat (1983), are musicals about pop music using direct-cinema technique. Heart Pounding Beat uses direct-cinema technique in a fictional comedy language in which two actors improvise their dialogues as the real action - a Gilberto Gil tour from north to south of the country – takes place. The sound of the film in Dolby-Stereo, processed in Los Angeles, introduces this vital audio technology for the first time in Brazilian cinema. In 1993, he is the Brazilian producer of the ending of It's All True, unfinished film by Orson Welles, shot in 1942 in Brazil. In 1995, he releases O Judeu, a historical film, filmed in Portugal, first Portuguese-Brazilian official coproduction which he produces and directs with an international cast and technical crew. The Jew wins among others the prize of Best Movie at the 1995 Brasilia Film Festival and the HBO/Brazil (1996) award, as well as other national and international awards. Launched commercially in New York receives a positive review in the New York Times which critic Stephen Holden compares its photography, by the renowned Portuguese DP Eduardo Serra, to the painting of Caravaggio. This experience leads him to dedicate himself to the Portuguese-Afro-Brazilian cultural heritage as the thematic source for his future film projects, such as the film Estorvo by Ruy Guerra (1998), a Portuguese-Cuban-Brazilian coproduction of which he was delegate-producer. From 1999 to 2001, he works in public television as director of programs and documentaries, while also teaches cinema at Estácio de Sá University. From 2002 to 2007, acts as Head of Strategic Affairs at the recently created National Agency of Cinema (ANCINE), in which he contributes significantly to the formulation and execution of the agency's international policy. He publishes texts and gives lectures in Brazil and abroad on cinematographic politics and culture, such as the article For a Cinematographic Policy for the 21st Century in The World Film Industry, organized by Alessandra Meleiro. He acts also as audiovisual thesis examiner for the course of the Rio-Branco Institute / MRE (2006). In 2010, he is reinstated in the diplomatic career by the Amnesty Commission of the Ministry of Justice and assigned as cultural and audiovisual attaché to the Brazilian embassy in New Delhi, India. In his works, Azulay seeks to convey critical thematic objectivity with an aesthetic audiovisual look such as in: Aide-Memoire - Paths of Brazilian Diplomacy, first documentary on Brazilian diplomacy and foreign policy; Debret - A Watercolor of Brazil ,ocumentary about the French painter Jean Baptiste Debret, BNDES Selection award using puppet characters mixed with sophisticated digital special effects; Portrait of Cavalcanti, documentary for Canal Brasil about Alberto Cavalcanti; Five Times Machado, tv series based on Brazil’s top writer Machado de Assis` short-stories of which he was producer and director apart from directing one of the episodes. This work used modern high-definition (HD) digital technology technique to attain a direct-cinema approach in the reconstitution of a 19th. Century historical time piece. Nowadays he is dedicated to the streaming production of the series Cartas Bahianas, once again a historical co-production with Portugal with screenplay by Millor Fernandes, Geraldo Carneiro and Ruy Guerra apart from also organizing reviews and preservation projects of his work and texts.

Cléo Pires

Cleo Pires Ayrosa Galvão is a Brazilian actress and singer.

Zuzu Angel Brazilian-American fashion designer

Zuleika Angel Jones, better known as Zuzu Angel, was a Brazilian-American fashion designer, who became famous for opposing the Brazilian military dictatorship after the forced disappearance of her son, Stuart. She was also the mother of journalist Hildegard Angel.

Operation Saucer was an investigation carried out between 1977 and 1978 by the Brazilian Air Force following alleged UFO sightings in the city of Colares. The investigation was closed after finding no unusual phenomena.

<i>Lula, Son of Brazil</i> 2009 film directed by Fábio Barreto

Lula, Son of Brazil is a 2009 biographical Brazilian film based on the early life of former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Directed by Fábio Barreto, the film was released on January 1, 2010. Upon its release, Lula, Son of Brazil was the most expensive Brazilian film ever, with a budget of over 17 million reais, being later surpassed by Nosso Lar. On September 23, 2010, the film was unanimously chosen by a Ministry of Culture commission as Brazil's submission to the 83rd Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, despite not having been chosen to compete.

<i>Doces Bárbaros</i> 1976 live album by Doces Bárbaros (Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Maria Bethânia, and Gal Costa)

Doces Bárbaros is a 1976 album by the Música popular brasileira supergroup of the same name. It was recorded June 24 of that year at Anhembi Stadium in São Paulo. Its members were Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethânia and Gal Costa, four of the biggest names in the history of the music of Brazil. The band was the subject of a 1977 documentary directed by Jom Tob Azulay. In 1994, they performed a tribute concert to Mangueira school of samba.

Sérgio Fernando Paranhos Fleury was a Brazilian police deputy during the Brazilian military dictatorship. He was chief of DOPS, the Brazilian "Department for Political and Social Order", that had a major role during the years of the Brazilian military government. Fleury was known for his violent temper and was officially accused of torture and homicide of numerous people, but died before being tried.

Paulo Malhães was a Brazilian Army officer who died during a home invasion and robbery. Shortly before his death Malhães had acknowledged he had tortured and killed dissidents during the Brazilian military dictatorship, and was unapologetic for doing so. According to the South China Morning Post his death was suspected to have been an act of retaliation, but his autopsy demonstrated that he died of a heart attack.

Inês Etienne Romeu

Inês Etienne Romeu was a Brazilian political prisoner held in extrajudicial detention in a Brazilian torture camp in the early 1970s. Romeu has been described as the sole captive to survive the camp. In 2014, Colonel Paulo Malhães testimony to the National Truth Commission revealed that Colonel of the Army Cyro Guedes Etchegoyen was the person in charge of the House of Death. He was head of the Army Information Center (CIE) from 1971 to 1974. He was also in charge of a group Brazilian military sent to train Augusto Pinochet's military personnel. Colonel Etchegoyen was trained at US Army School of the Americas. Paulo Malhães, would later claim that the purpose of the center was to convince suspected political opponents to serve as double agents against regime opponents. The main technique used to turn suspects into double agents was torture, which would be backed up by blackmail and clandestine payments.

Henning Albert Boilesen Danish business executive

Henning Albert Boilesen was a Danish business executive who lived in Brazil. He was the president of Ultragaz and founder of CIEE - Centro de Integração Empresa Escola.

Carlos Brilhante Ustra

Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra was a Brazilian army officer, politician and torturer who served as a colonel in the Brazilian Army.

<i>The Jew</i> (film) 1995 film directed by Jom Tob Azulay

The Jew is a 1996 Brazilian-Portuguese co-production film directed by Jom Tob Azulay with Filipe Pinheiro in the title role, Dina Sfat, and Mário Viegas as the king. It tells the story of the writer António José da Silva, nicknamed "the Jew", burned at the stake during the reign of King João V of Portugal in 1739.

Lúcia Murat Brazilian filmmaker

Lúcia Murat is a Brazilian filmmaker.

Susana Schnarndorf Brazilian Paralympic swimmer

Susana Schnarndorf Ribeiro is a Brazilian Paralympic swimmer. In 2005, after a lengthy triathlon career, at the age of 37, Schnarndorf began to experience the first symptoms of a mysterious degenerative disease that was later diagnosed as multiple system atrophy (MSA). After a break from professional athletics, Schnarndorf returned to the sports world as a swimmer and is presently a member of the Brazilian Paralympic Swimming Team.

Miriam Leitão

Miriam Azevedo de Almeida Leitão is a Brazilian journalist and television presenter. She has a program at GloboNews and is a commentator on economics at TV Globo's Bom Dia Brasil and writes the column Panorama Econômico in the newspaper O Globo.

Muito Prazer is a 1979 Brazilian film directed by David Neves.

<i>Babenco: Tell Me When I Die</i> 2019 film directed by Bárbara Paz

Babenco: Tell Me When I Die is a 2019 Brazilian documentary film directed by Bárbara Paz. The film premiered at the 2019 Venice Film Festival, where it won Best Documentary on Cinema. And focuses on the last years of life of filmmaker Hector Babenco, who died in 2016, victimized by a cancer. It was selected as the Brazilian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.

A Verdade Sufocada - A História que a Esquerda não quer que o Brasil conheça (2006) is the second memoir of the retired colonel of the Brazilian Army, Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, the first Brazilian military man convicted of practicing torture during the military dictatorship in Brazil (1964-1985).

Ternuma is a non-governmental organization formed in 1998 by military, ex-military, family members and their sympathizers that aims to interdict and deny the past about the military dictatorship in Brazil from 1964 to 1985.

References

  1. ↑ Sattamini, Lina (2010-05-19). A Mother's Cry: A Memoir of Politics, Prison, and Torture under the Brazilian Military Dictatorship. Duke University Press. p. 16. ISBN   978-0822392842.
  2. ↑ Hentoff, Nat (December 16, 1971). "TV". Village Voice. p. 50. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  3. ↑ Green, James (2010). We cannot remain silent. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. pp. 260–3. ISBN   9780822347354 . Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  4. 1 2 Combs, James; Combs, Sara (2014). Film propaganda and American politics. New York: Routledge. p. 140. ISBN   978-0815313229 . Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  5. ↑ "The NEW American FILMMAKERS series", Village Voice, p. 72, September 23, 1971, retrieved January 10, 2016.
  6. ↑ Ferraz, Lucas (5 August 2012). "Filme Relata Tortura no Brasil" (in Portuguese). Gazeta de Alagoas. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  7. 1 2 "Ex-militantes 'descobrem' repercussão de filme sobre tortura 41 anos depois" (in Portuguese). Folha de S.Paulo. 22 November 2012. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  8. ↑ "Debate sobre Brasil: um relato de tortura" (in Portuguese). Universo Online. 20 February 2013. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  9. ↑ Costa, Gilberto (18 August 2010). "Comissão anistia diplomata que exibiu em Los Angeles documentário sobre tortura na ditadura" (in Portuguese). Empresa Brasil de Comunicação. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  10. 1 2 3 Éboli, Evandro (7 February 2011). "Diplomata Jom Tob Azulay é reintegrado ao Itamaraty" (in Portuguese). O Globo. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  11. ↑ Escorel, Eduardo (9 August 2012). "Brasil – Um Relato de Tortura (II)". Revista Piauí. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
  12. ↑ Scheck, Frank (12 October 2015). "'Rebel Citizen': NYFF Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  13. ↑ "Mostra sobre ditadura brasileira é apresentada nos EUA" (in Portuguese). Brazil Ministry of Justice. Portal Brasil. 5 May 2015. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.