While Karim Ainouz travels the world to promote his lavish melodrama, his country’s lack of support speaks for a major crisis in Brazilian cinema.
It’s no secret that Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has angered much of the population and around the world. Since his election in January, the far-right leader and former army officer has attempted to censor the media, expand laws to protect police officers and soldiers who kill on duty, and deny the devastating effects of forest fires that destroy Brazil’s rainforests. He has ruthlessly disregarded his authority and hit anyone who criticizes his policies.
Bolsonaro’s current war against the country’s film industry has received less attention. At the beginning of the year, Bolsonaro massively restricted the arts, but also explicitly threatened the support of the filmmakers. During the summer, the President made a speech with the casual proposal to eliminate Ancine, the country’s central regulator, which funds the Brazilian film industry. While such a radical maneuver would involve an almost impossible offer for parliamentary approval, it showed the level of hostility towards the country’s filmmakers, which made many of them unsure whether they could continue to work.
This includes Karim Ainouz, whose celebrated “Invisible Life” was selected as the Brazilian Oscar earlier this year. The film, a lavish 1950s melodrama about two sisters separated by family secrets for several decades, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and eventually found its way across the United States through Amazon Studios. However, in an interview with IndieWire from New York, which took place a week before the film was released domestically, Ainouz said that he felt constant opposition from the government – when it decided to recognize him by everyone.
“I think you’re experiencing a downturn in the culture industry,” he said, referring to the recent right-wing uprisings in Bolivia and other parts of Latin America. “Brazil is just the beginning of it.” Ainouz has been making films since the early 1990s and said he was initially surprised that no one from the National Film Agency contacted him after Invisible Life had had success in Cannes and elsewhere. The institution has done in the past. “Throughout the year, we never received an email, letter, or phone call that said,” We are so proud of you that you won this award, “he said.” Zero. Well, I’m happy because I don’t need her damn fascist. “Hello! You were great.”
The situation continues to be daunting. In September, Ancine withdrew on an apparent attempt at censorship that reflected the country’s loyalty to its religious base to support several LGBTQ + films. (Before “Invisible Life”, Ainouz ‘films often dealt with these issues.) “This constant back and forth and all the projects that this agency is going through – what they all do – mean that everything takes ten times longer,” said Ainouz. “That’s what I call turtle surgery. So projects cannot be developed further, and if you want to change something in a project, they make it bureaucratically impossible to do so. “
The same week that Ainouz traveled to New York from the Havana Film Festival on the commercials, he came across another red flag when an Invisible Life screening set for National Film Agency employees was abruptly canceled. “You never told me why,” he said. “They didn’t reschedule the screening. It’s just a lack of respect. The entire industry is being stopped, many people are changing jobs because there will undoubtedly be this constant stop-and-go in the next two years.”
Ainouz is hardly the only veteran in Brazilian industry who is worried about his future. Another title premiered in Cannes, “Bacurau”, appeared at the festival, while co-director Kleber Mendonça Filho (directed by Juliano Dornelles) met with special government requests to return funding for “Neighboring Sounds”, his 2012 debut – probably due to his continued criticism of Brazilian politics. “Every time I get in touch with them, they see an opportunity to do something,” he said in an interview with IndieWire.
“Everyone is really concerned about it,” said director and producer André Klutzes, who owes the “Memorias Postumas” and the “Marvada Carne” celebrated in Cannes. “We feel very fragile with the government in this situation.” It affects culture, science, the funding of many species. Filmmaking in Brazil needs this type of funding. Otherwise it is not there. There is no other way. “Brazilian journalist Ana Paula Souza, who wrote extensively about the situation, agreed. “The history of the Brazilian film industry is based on this relationship between cinema and the state,” she said. “It’s more than politics. I think it’s about the space we have in the world. “
Source: Director of Brazilian Oscar submission knocks the government down – The Media Times