Documentary Uses Pornochanchadas to Show Another Side of Brazilian History during Dictatorship

08/24/2018 - 14h38

The whole premise of "Histórias que Nosso Cinema (Não) Contava" (Stories Our Cinema (Didn't) Tell) is in its title, in particular in the disquieting "didn't" in brackets. So, did it or didn't it tell stories? Here's the problem: it did both. We'll see how.

For starters, this is the Brazilian movie genre pornochanchada (in a loose translation, sex comedy). The term designated a popular genre between the 1970s and 1980s, and of course, it was meant to shame it. For the cinematic establishment (moviemakers and critics) it was basically a diversion where scantily clad women were used as the main attraction in cheap movies (particularly comedies) with the purpose of maybe making the audience forget the dictatorship it lived under.

	divulgação
	Fernanda Pessoa

What Fernanda Pessoa's tremendous research produced is something different altogether. It's not about discussing the artistic worth of some of these movies (Antonio Calmon's work, for instance, is great). It's not about that. What Pessoa sought (and accomplished) to show is that, through these films, it's possible to glance an incredibly rich Brazilian history during the dictatorship.

It's not exactly the same Brazilian history found in books. But it's all there: the coup, mentions to people imprisoned, etc. But that is not essential; since the genre truly established itself further down the 1970s. And there are traces here and there of a history in its political (censorship, violence, torture), economic (illicit transactions, greedy clergymen, dodgy foreign businessmen moving to Brazil), and sexual (acknowledgement of female sexuality, along with sexism) aspects, as well as general social issues (racism, divorce, hypocrisy, political and apolitical sadism).

Translated by NATASHA MADOV

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