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Brasil

Accession number: 
1952.0028
Alternate Titles: 
Brazil
Alternate title
Production Years: 
1952
Release Year: 

Languages:

Film Properties: 
Length (minutes): 
43 (long version)
Holding Institutions: 

Library and Archives Canada: 16mm.
"The industry, culture, and landscape of Brazil are featured with particular emphasis on the growing economy of this country and its 'progress' towards a society that dominates nature. Scenes include: farmers herding livestock through the jungle as the narrator explains how there are 'more and more clearings where the forest has been burnt back to prepare the way for farming'; coffee dealers making transactions outside the Bolsa on the streets of Santos. In the tasting labs, the beans are separated, ground and sampled by the tasters from a rotating table; workers cutting sugar cane in the fields while a small steam train circles gathering the cane. The refinery processes the raw cane shipping out sugar crystals in sacks. Street footage of Ouro Preto, an ancient capital of the mining state of Minas Gerais, which has been maintained as a monument to the past by the Brazilian government as a historical site. The govenor's palace is shown along with the work of artisans whose sculptures are featured on many baroque structures. Jungadeiro fishermen sailing on shallow water in their frail boats; soccer, known as football, played at all levels and ages from young children with homemade soccer balls playing in any open space to professionals in a stadium; a wealthy couple, Dr. J. M. Meirelles and his wife in their home. Dr. Meirelles addresses the camera and discusses his purchase of Canadian Holsteins which he beleives to be the best in the world. The Holsteins are shown being paraded near his stables; a lab technician from the Butantan Institute of San Paulo demonstrates rattlesnakes striking his leg as he agitates them with his rubber boots to a group. In the lab, he extracts venom from various poisonous snakes into a glass jar. The venom is crystallized and the venom crystals used in anti-toxins; city footage of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, new buildings and the construction of highways."

"For complete résumé, see ISN 225953. Additional footage includes: animation of air route to Santos; workers stripping branches of coffee berries, man tosses loose berries into the air from a sieve to remove twigs and dirt; spreading berries on concrete squares to dry in the sun; Veleize Gonsaga a folk singer with a drummer and bongo player - Gonsaga plays accordion and the band plays 2 songs; man cutting bananas down for female worker to carry; girl offering a cup of berries to passing cars; shots of various homes, designs on roofs, children riding bikes through neighbourhoods; airport in Rio de Janeiro; construction footage; scenes of traffic congestion, people and cars on the street, (dramatic scenes) fender bender and ensuing argument, woman tying up public telephone, woman runs out of water at kitchen sink in her home; travelling down chairlift in hills towards hydro electric plant; phone operators; workers running underground cables; new phone lines being installed; animation of telephone network; power lines leading to factories; FABRICA KIBON building, GENERAL MOTORS building; dams, waterways; animation of new plant for Paraiba, converted waters and path of the water (diverted 20 miles)."

Bibliography: 

"The 6th Annual Canadian Film Awards," Film News 14, no. 5 (1954): 15.
[Still shot from Brasil showing fishermen; caption reads:] "BRASIL (Crawley, for Brazilian Traction, Light and Power Co. is brilliantly photographed and more than a travelogue. (Special Mention). . ."

"Business in Motion: Films of Current Interest," Canadian Business 27 (January 1954): 62.
"Brazil today is a country of ultra-modern cities, expanding manufacturing industries, villages and huge tracts of untamed jungle. This film illustrates these contrasted aspects of the life of this huge Latin-American country; also shows details of a gigantic water-diversion project, aimed to supply Rio de Janeiro with badly-needed hydro-electric power."

Crawley Films, Free Films: Sources of Free 16mm Sponsored Films in Canada Compiled and Published by Crawley Films (Ottawa: Crawley Films, April 1969): 7.
"The story of Brazil together with the Company's development there."