Cinema Novo

Eryk Rocha's 2016 Brazilian documentary is about a film movement formed in the sixties. Its directors worked on low budgets, with handheld cameras and an openly political stance; the aim was to show Brazil's own reality in its own language. The documentary is a collage rather than a history. Scenes from the films of the period, interviews with the directors and archive recordings are joined into an unbroken flow; there is no narration and no chronology. Eryk Rocha is the son of one of the movement's founders, which explains the film's access to the material. Sound design and editing are its main instruments; the result is not a source of information but an attempt to convey the tone of a period. Who it's for: those interested in Brazilian film history and experimental documentary. Who it's not for: viewers looking for an introduction to the movement; the film introduces no film and no director.