OS SERTÕES ONSCREEN IN PAULO GIL SOARES’S O HOMEM DE COURO (1969/70)

Resumen

This article examines filmmaker Paulo Gil Soares’s early work with a particular focus on the documentary O Homem de Couro (1969/70), in the context of Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964-85), the documentary-film initiative known as the “Farkas Caravan,” and 1960s-era Brazilian documentary more broadly. I argue that Soares’s O Homem de Couro represents an audiovisual renewal and revision of Euclides da Cunha’s portrayal of the northeastern vaqueiro in Os Sertões (1902). In the film, Soares’s depiction of the vaqueiro served as both a tribute to these national folk heroes and a reminder to viewers that da Cunha’s scathing turn-of-the-century portrait of the northeastern social order should not be considered a relic of the past. Timeless northeastern verses drive the narrative, reinforcing that message. In this way, Soares made a film that was both beautiful and denunciatory without resorting to pedagogical voiceovers or orthodox dogma. He meanwhile updated key elements of Os Sertões for the 1960s and ‘70s. Soares offered subjectivity that was lacking in da Cunha’s account, discrediting da Cunha’s nineteenth-century biological and geographical determinism. He also documented inauspicious shifts in this labor market that threatened the vaqueiro’s future. In the early 1970s, Soares would go on to found the influential documentary-journalism program Globo Repórter. By focusing on his work with the Farkas Caravan, this article contributes a new perspective on a key but previously overlooked element in the formation of the Brazilian school of documentary film and journalism, and on the enduring legacies of da Cunha’s work.