A Century of Brazilian Documentary Film

From Nationalism to Protest

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by Darlene J. Sadlier

Type: Studies
Subject: Countries > Brazil
Keywords: Brazil, documentary, history of cinema
Publishing date: 2022
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 328 pages
6 x 9 inches (15 x 23 cm)

ISBN

978-1-4773-2523-0

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Book Presentation:
Since the late nineteenth century, Brazilians have turned to documentaries to explain their country to themselves and to the world. In a magisterial history covering one hundred years of cinema, Darlene J. Sadlier identifies Brazilians’ unique contributions to a diverse genre while exploring how that genre has, in turn, contributed to the making and remaking of Brazil.

A Century of Brazilian Documentary Film is a comprehensive tour of feature and short films that have charted the social and political story of modern Brazil. The Amazon appears repeatedly and vividly. Sometimes—as in a prize-winning 1922 feature—the rainforest is a galvanizing site of national pride; at other times, the Amazon has been a focus for land-reform and Indigenous-rights activists. Other key documentary themes include Brazil’s swings from democracy to dictatorship, tensions between cosmopolitanism and rurality, and shifting attitudes toward race and gender. Sadlier also provides critical perspectives on aesthetics and media technology, exploring how documentaries inspired dramatic depictions of poverty and migration in the country’s Northeast and examining Brazilians’ participation in streaming platforms that have suddenly democratized filmmaking.

About the Author:
Darlene J. Sadlier is a professor emerita of Spanish and Portuguese at Indiana University. She is the author of Brazil Imagined: 1500 to the Present, Americans All: Good Neighbor Cultural Diplomacy in World War II, and The Portuguese-Speaking Diaspora: Seven Centuries of Literature and the Arts.

Press Reviews:
Monumental...The future of documentary production in Brazil is uncertain as is the nature of the current political process. Nonetheless, Sadlier’s book offers valuable insight into better understanding the history and inextricability of both.
— NACLA

With this volume, Sadlier...fills a gap in English-language scholarship on film by providing a clearly organized historical survey of documentary filmmaking in Brazil over the last hundred years...Sadlier’s prose is eminently readable, and the scholarly apparatus is robust…Highly recommended.
- CHOICE

Sadlier has a remarkable ability to synopsize and contextualize films . . . Engrossing from beginning to end, A Century of Brazilian Documentary Film belongs on the bookshelf (or in the digital files) of anyone interested in Latin America's geography, history, politics, sociology, and popular culture.
— Journal of Latin American Geography

Darlene Sadlier’s A Century of Brazilian Documentary: From Nationalism to Protest offers an accessible guide to the nonfiction output of one of Latin America’s most vibrant and prolific audiovisual industries, the most wide-ranging published in English to date. The book’s organization is at once chronological and thematic, which allows it to cover a tremendous amount of ground while anchoring the reader by grouping its detailed case studies around particular themes or approaches . . .A Century of Brazilian Documentary [Film] will find a place on the bookshelves of scholars and students of Brazilian cinema, culture, and history as well as documentary film and media, and serve as a valuable reference for years to come.
— H-Net Reviews

See the publisher website: University of Texas Press

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