Brazil's Government Film Agency Will Move from Rio to Brasília

Agency will be closer to federal government in an effort for the government to have more influence on productions

Brasília and São Paulo

President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday that he plans to transfer Ancine from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia and criticized the government's financing of films that he said were "activism."

In a ceremony commemorating the 200 days of the current government, he said that it is difficult for him to admit that public money financed films like Bruna Surfistinha, which chronicled the sex life of a middle-class prostitute.

A scene from the film "Bruna Surfistinha," by director Marcos Baldini (Foto: Divulgação) - Divulgação

"Now little, the [Minister of Citizenship] Osmar Terra and I went to a corner, and we hit it. I can not admit that, with public money, films such as Bruna Surfistinha's are made. No. He proposed to bring Ancine to Brasilia. We are not against this or that option, but the activism we can not allow in respect to the families. It is something that has changed with the arrival of the government," he said.

On Thursday (18), the president signed a decree that transferred the Superior Council of Cinema, responsible for the formulation of the national audiovisual policy, from the Ministry of Citizenship to the Civil House. Bolsonaro is dissatisfied with the current system of promotion in film and will make changes in the present structure.

Translated by Kiratiana Freelon

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