Abstract/Summary

Positioning itself between the essay and the documentary forms, the feature-length film Passages showcases a selection of Brazilian films in which intermedial devices, that is, the utilisation within film of artforms and media such as literature, painting, theatre, music, photography, radio and television, appear to function as a ‘passage’ to political and social reality. It interweaves these filmic examples with interviews with 15 exponents of the Brazilian film industry, including 11 filmmakers, one editor, one music composer, one producer and one curator, all of whom are strongly connected with what became known as the Retomada do Cinema Brasileiro, or the Brazilian Film Revival, starting in the mid-1990s, which brought back to the agenda the question of national identity and Brazil’s lingering social issues. The flourishing and diversification of independent filmmaking from the 1990s onwards favoured not only a new approach to reality, but also an emboldened use of the film medium that acknowledged and exposed its inextricable connections with other art and medial forms. Though the 1990s Film Revival involved production centres all over Brazil, Passages focuses on film practitioners from São Paulo and Pernambuco, who established a creative collaboration across the geographic, economic and cultural borders of their respective regions.