Cinema Novo

Cinema Novo (New Cinema) was a group of young Brazilian filmmakers who wanted films about the country's real problems, made with almost no money. Its roots are in Nelson Pereira dos Santos's Rio, 40 Degrees (1955). Glauber Rocha's 1965 manifesto, the 'aesthetic of hunger', argued that a poor country should show its hunger and violence instead of hiding them. Rocha, Pereira dos Santos, Ruy Guerra, Joaquim Pedro de Andrade and Leon Hirszman filmed the dry sertão, the favelas and the suburbs of Rio. After the military coup of 1964, and especially after the harsher rules of 1968, the films grew more allegorical, and several directors worked under censorship or left the country.

Where

Brazil, especially the northeast sertão, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro

When

Late 1950s to early 1970s

Key figures

Glauber Rocha, Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Ruy Guerra, Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, Leon Hirszman, Carlos Diegues, Arnaldo Jabor

Landmark films

Rio, 40 Degrees (1955), Vidas Secas (1963), Black God, White Devil (1964), Os Fuzis (1964), Entranced Earth (1967), Antonio das Mortes (1969)

Legacy

A model for political, low-budget filmmaking across Latin America and the so-called Third World

What to look for

• Harsh sunlight, dry landscapes and handheld, rough-edged camerawork
• Poor people, myth and folk tradition set against the politics of power
• Allegory, anger and sudden shifts between realism and theatrical stylisation