Glauber Rocha
Glauber Rocha
Brazil, 1961
DVD (35mm). 80min. Black and White. VOSE
Photography: Tony Tabatony
Editor: Nelson Pereira Dos Santos
Screenplay: Glauber Rocha, José Telles de Magalhães, Luis Paulino Dos Santos
Music: Washington Bruno y Batatinha
Actors: Antônio Sampaio, Luiza Maranhão, Lucy Carvalho, Aldo Teixeira, Lídio Silva
A village of exploited fishermen is shaken when Firmino arrives back from the city. Neorealist in feel, the director's first feature film reveals a surprising artistic maturity. The presence of the sea - a divinity to fishermen - music, dance, rituals and atonement are all key to this story.
Glauber Rocha was born in Vitória da Conquista, in the Brazilian state of Bahia, in 1939. At the age of 16 he joined the Grupo Jogralescas de Teatralização Poética and at the age of 17 published film reviews in the Jornal da Bahia and other newspapers in the state of Rio de Janeiro. In 1959 he shot his first short film, Pátio, and directed Barravento. His first feature film, Deus e o Diabo na Terra do SolTerra em transe (1963), was considered truly revolutionary, and his following film, (1966), firmly established him internationally as a staunch critic of Latin American politics.
Controversial, provocative and acclaimed nationally and internationally for his role in developing a new filmmaking language from the 1960s to the 1980s, Glauber used his theories and films to forge a new conception of filmmaking that broke with the existing models held up by the US and European filmmaking industries. The difficulties associated with making films in Brazil inspired him to set up the Cinema Novo movement and to set out the Aesthetics of Hunger manifesto, which championed independent, socially committed and stylistically innovative filmmaking.
