Carlos Diegues & Zezé Motta in New York!

Last night I visited the Americas Society in Manhattan for another wonderful Brazil-themed program.

I am extremely grateful that organizations like the Americas Society bring in Brazilian authors and artists for such special events. For people like me, who love to learn Portuguese and learn about Brazilian culture, these opportunities are truly amazing.

The evening began with two short clips from Diegues’ films: a scene from Quilombo (1984), and then a scene from Bye Bye Brasil (1980). These are both movies I watched for various Portuguese classes in college. I remember that in addition to listening and learning new words and expressions in Portuguese, I was also learning a lot about Brazilian culture and history from these movies.

Fabiano Canosa, distinguished film programmer, producer, and exhibition curator, interviewed Carlos Diegues. Canosa told us that his first interview of Diegues was in 1963, upon the release of Diegues’ first feature-film, Ganga Zumba. At that time, Diegues was only 23 years old. The two men have remained friends ever since.

Carlos “Cacá” Diegues was born in the Brazilian state of Alagoas, but he moved with his family at the age of six to Rio de Janeiro. Because his mother was afraid that Rio de Janeiro was much too big and violent (a fear that continues to be prevalent among Brazilians and others today), young Diegues was forbidden to go out much. Because of this, he played street soccer in the neighborhood and he went to movies. As a young man, he made friends with Glauber Rocha and others who made Cinema Novo movies. He says that “since they could do it, I figured I could too.”

The Cinema Novo generation made very low budget movies with bank-loans that the banks were “crazy” to make (according to Diegues). At that time, nobody made movies in Brazil. Diegues said that wanting to make movies in Brazil in the 1950s and 1960s was “like wanting to be an astronaut in Paraguay–people would say that if a Brazilian movie got made, then it must be great.” (Because it was extremely difficult to both make and distribute a movie in Brazil at that time.)

The Brazilian press supported the Cinema Novo movement and was against the Dictatorship in the early years, and that helped men like Diegues to make their movies and get an audience. By 1968 the Dictatorship became very oppressive and very dark. For example, the censors insisted that 8 minutes be cut from Carlos Diegues’ film Os Herdeiros. That was about 10-15% of the whole movie, and it was very frustrating and oppressive to work under those circumstances.

Diegues and many other artists had to leave Brazil in the late 1960s and early 1970s, because they couldn’t work under the oppressive dictatorship. In 1976, though, he returned to Brazil and made Xica da Silva, another incredible movie I watched in Portuguese classes in the late 1990s. Fabiano Canosa says that Xica, which tells the story of the legendary slave-woman whose Portuguese master fell in love with her and gave her everything she wanted, was an affirmation of Brazil as a mixed-race country.

When Diegues and Canosa mentioned Xica, amazingly, Zezé Motta, Xica

herself, stood up from the audience and joined the men on-stage. She is legendary and beloved in Brazil, and I was extremely pleased to see her in-person here in New York! Zezé Motta says that in Brazil it is very difficult to start a career, and to maintain it, in acting. She says she divides her life into before Xica and after. Her dream was to be a singer and actor, and Xica da Silva allowed her to realize both dreams. She has been to New York many times, singing at SOBs and Carnegie Hall, and for these performances she was always advertised as “Zezé Motta, Star of Xica da Silva.” Motta has been in 5 movies with Carlos Diegues. When asked about how Brazilian race-relations were portrayed in Xica, and whether the movie portrays Xica as simply a self-interested woman who wants to get everything she can possibly get from her master (a common critique of the movie), Zezé says, simply, “Don’t ask Xica to have the attitudes of Angela Davis.” She says that Diegues’ movie Quilombo addressed the question of race relations in Brazil much better than Xica da Silva. Indeed, according to Motta, Quilombo is shown in Brazilian schools to demonstrate racial themes in Brazilian society.

Carlos Diegues said that he makes movies about characters like Xica da Silva and others who he doesn’t understand well and wants to understand better. He loves to tell stories and connect with audiences. I asked him what he thinks about Portuguese students learning Portuguese and learning about Brazilian culture from his movies, and he said he’s glad that we are interested in these movies and in learning Portuguese.