Fire damages Cinemateca Brasileira, largest South American audiovisual collection: The outcome of Bo
Fire damages Cinemateca Brasileira, largest South American audiovisual collection: The outcome of Bolsonaro government policy
David Walsh, Brunna Machado
3 hours ago
On July 29, fire tore through a portion of the Cinemateca Brasileira in São Paulo, Brazil, one of the most important film institutions in the world, which houses the largest audiovisual collection in South America. The Cinemateca houses some 250,000 reels of film dating back to 1910, in addition to more than one million cinema documents and items, including photos, scripts, posters and books.
In 2010–11, a survey conducted by the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) rated the Cinemateca third in the world for its photochemical processing capabilities. It is also an important training centre for technicians and researchers from partner institutions.
The fire, whose full consequences are not yet known, is the outcome of the policies of the ultra-right Jair Bolsonaro government. However, various commentators have pointed out that worsening condition at the Cinemateca began under previous administrations, including the Workers Party (PT) government of Dilma Rousseff.
Shortly after Bolsonaro took power in January 2019, his ultra-right government dissolved the ministries of culture, sports and social development, merging them into a single department called the ministry of citizenship, and froze the funds of Brazil’s National Film Agency (ANCINE). Fernanda Brenner, of the São Paulo-based art non-profit PîVO, noted at the time that Bolsonaro “turned the ministry [of culture] into a small secretariat,” according to Artnet News. “Among so many disastrous measures in such a short time, this almost went unnoticed.”
In December 2019, Bolsonaro’s government failed to renew its contract with the Association for Educational Communication Roquette Pinto (ACERP) for the operation and management of the Cinemateca. The government unhappiness with the perceived leftist content of certain programs televised on ACERP’s education channel apparently influenced the decision.
More:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/08/07/cine-a07.html