Art, Community and Accessibility on a Brazilian Tropical Island
Bucking Hollywood trends at Festival de Cinema de Vitória
In Brazil, local cinema has been deeply affected by the predatory Hollywood business model.
While most theatres are quickly occupied by the latest summer blockbuster, many national productions go through several phases of requests, applications, interviews and evaluation by the Ministry of Culture just to receive their distribution budget.
When the money does arrive, it is usually short. Most cultural productions in the country are supported by the Rouanet Law. It sets a budget for every project – feature films, music festivals, books, short films, etc. – according to how much they have collected the previous year. This limited amount is the entire investment Brazilian culture will receive that year.
This system is very helpful in getting the funds in the hands of people who otherwise might not be able to make art. However, the extensive processes, requests, checks and limited budgets can slow down their reach once finalised.
For instance, a Hollywood film can pay its distributors to get the best rooms and times for exhibition, whereas national films and their limited distribution fund will have to settle for a 2:30 PM slot on a Wednesday. This, unfortunately, creates the perception that people don’t like watching Brazilian films and that they don’t make any money.
Enter Festival de Vitória
31 years ago, a group of young filmmakers bucked this model and gathered as many local audiovisual projects as they could. And they screened them — for free — for anyone who wanted to watch. Quickly, these gatherings grew and soon they were hosting competitive showings of films and music videos from all over Brazil, Latin America and Africa.
Today, Festival de Cinema de Vitória is the largest film event in the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo. The capital, Vitória, is an 89 km² island with a landscape as rich as its culture. It encompasses mangroves where crabs are caught by hand, beaches with environmentally protected turtles, hills you can climb and the amenities of city life awaiting you by the end of the day.
The area where the festival happens every July (our winter, but with a summer feel) is just as culturally rich and diverse as the films themselves. With historical buildings at the city centre and local restaurants – serving up dishes typical of Brazilian cuisine such as dadinho de tapioca and baião de dois – all within walking distance, attendees are invited to explore the area and sometimes simply happen upon some of the locations of the films they’ve just seen.
The whole event takes place in the historic city centre, more specifically, at the Teatro Glória, a 1932 art déco construction. The place has always been a space of cultural relevance, alternating between a cinema and a theatre, or both, throughout its history. Today it’s home to modern screening rooms, a state-of-the-art theatre, many meeting areas and creative laboratory spaces.
Right across from the building you have a few other historical landmarks, such as the lovely Costa Pereira Square and the Carlos Gomes Theater, which opened in 1927 to take over the Melpômene Theatre (1896-1924), after a fire that led to its demolition.
Read the rest over at Journey Into Cinema!