Cinema According to Nelson Pereira dos Santos

A series of films directed by Nelson Pereira dos Santos

Born in São Paulo in 1928, Brazilian filmmaker Nelson Pereira dos Santos has been one of the most significant and influential filmmakers over the last half century. Inspired by neorealism, dos Santos forged the beginnings of a new, politically engaged Brazilian cinema in the 1950s with films such as Rio, 40 Graus (1956) and Rio, Zona Norte (1957) that brought the lives and neighborhoods of Rio's urban poor to the screen. In Vidas Secas (1963), his first masterpiece, he brought poetic dignity to a migrant workers displaced by drought and famine and paved the way for the radical Cinema Novo movement to come. In the decades to follow, dos Santos' expansive vision of a populist cinema found him exploring marginalized cultural and religious practices on screen as he honed his critique of official repression and colonialism across a range of genres, from ethnographically-informed period pieces such as How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman (1972) to wildly comic satires, such as Tent of Miracles (1977). The Archive is honored to host dos Santos in person on the opening weekend of this modest sampling from his monumental career.

 Nelson Pereira dos Santos (4/20, 4/21).

Published: Tuesday, March 26, 2013