Santiago

Joao Moreira Salles's 2007 Brazilian documentary is about Santiago, who worked as a butler in the director's family home. The footage was shot in 1992; Salles could not edit it and set it aside for thirteen years. In 2005 he returned to the material. The real subject is that delay. Watching his own old footage, Salles sees how he treated Santiago: constantly directing him, making him repeat his sentences, trying to shape him to fit a construction. The documentary makes that relationship visible. The result is not a portrait but a confession. The director's own brother speaks as narrator and the language is deliberately distanced. The black and white image and static frames are the form of the material itself. Who it's for: those interested in documentary ethics and Brazilian cinema. Who it's not for: viewers expecting information about Santiago; the film is chiefly concerned with the director's own position.