Glauber Rocha

In 1966, José Sarney was elected governor of Maranhão for the first time. To register his inauguration speech and his political pledge to the population of the state, the politician invited the main figure of the Cinema Novo, the ...

Fernando Duarte

Maranhão 66

Powerful filmmaking on lousy politics

Elected as Maranhão&apos;s Governor, José Sarney invites great director Glauber Rocha to film the moment when he takes office and does a marvelous and encouraging speech of game change, something on the lines of making people&apos;s lives better. 

But Glauber pulls the rug under &quot;his excellency&quot; by contrasting the potent speech of the politician with saddening images covering how miserable the state was, living in poverty and with people waiting for medical assistance that never came. The director&apos;s first intention was to cover the elected representant&apos;s acceptance speech; but the second intent, which at first seems to point a before/after election, has the utility of showing us that the new boss is the same as the old boss and nothing will change. And it didn&apos;t. At the time governor of the state, Sarney would become President of the nation after the death of the first president after 21 years of regime, and his family practically owns Maranhão. 

Why you should watch this? It&apos;s filmmaking at its greatest, Glauber is an amazing technician, a true artist who knows his craftsmanship and observes things as they are. His poetic almost maddening speeches are absent, he&apos;s silent here allowing the images of people laying on hospital beds, hopeful crowds testifying Sarney&apos;s big moment and all, let those images speak for themselves. Sadly, the director didn&apos;t lived long enough to see the man become president, otherwise he&apos;d make a movie about it the same way he did this short documentary, another great critical piece. The great Maranhão shouted by this politician never existed. 9/10

Elected as Maranhão's Governor, José Sarney invites great director Glauber Rocha to film the moment when he takes office and does a marvelous and encouraging speech of game change, something on the lines of making people's lives better. 

But Glauber pulls the rug under "his excellency" by contrasting the potent speech of the politician with saddening images covering how miserable the state was, living in poverty and with people waiting for medical assistance that never came. The director's first intention was to cover the elected representant's acceptance speech; but the second intent, which at first seems to point a before/after election, has the utility of showing us that the new boss is the same as the old boss and nothing will change. And it didn't. At the time governor of the state, Sarney would become President of the nation after the death of the first president after 21 years of regime, and his family practically owns Maranhão. 

Why you should watch this? It's filmmaking at its greatest, Glauber is an amazing technician, a true artist who knows his craftsmanship and observes things as they are. His poetic almost maddening speeches are absent, he's silent here allowing the images of people laying on hospital beds, hopeful crowds testifying Sarney's big moment and all, let those images speak for themselves. Sadly, the director didn't lived long enough to see the man become president, otherwise he'd make a movie about it the same way he did this short documentary, another great critical piece. The great Maranhão shouted by this politician never existed. 9/10

In 1966, José Sarney was elected governor of Maranhão for the first time. To register his inauguration speech and his political pledge to the population of the state, the politician invited the main figure of the Cinema Novo, the great filmmaker Glauber Rocha, to capture everything and turn into a great event. However, Rocha's nervous camera and combative spirit end up capturing a lot more than what Sarney had expected, by showing the contrast between the eloquent words spoken about progress and the harsh reality faced by the poor people.

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Maranhão 66

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