Brazil: Cinema, Sex and the Generals (1985)

Directed by

Simon Hartog

Genre

documentary film

Country

Brazil

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary looks at Brazilian filmmakers during the military dictatorship. It focuses on how they used sex comedy films to hide their social and political criticism from censors. The film itself faced censorship before it was finally broadcast.

informativedocumentary-stylehistoricalseriouscontextualcensoredpoliticalanalytical

What happens

Brazil: Cinema, Sex and the Generals is a 1985 British documentary film directed by Simon Hartog that examines Brazilian filmmakers who used the pornochanchada (or sex comedy) genre to escape censorship of their socially critical films during the military dictatorship in Brazil. The documentary was initially scheduled for broadcast on Channel 4 on 19 June 1985 in its Visions strand, to coincide with a season of Brazilian films being shown at the National Film Theatre, but was not aired due to a ban by the Independent Broadcasting Authority. A "revised version" was prepared and scheduled for 18 September 1985, but it too was banned by the IBA because it included a caption explaining which scenes had been cut. Visions producer John Ellis appeared on Right to Reply two days later to explain the ban. The film was eventually screened on 6 April 1991 in the Banned season of programmes relating to censorship, as an edition of Channel 4's Signals strand. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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• Rabo I (1985)
• Os Advogados contra a Ditadura
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• The Good Times Are Here Again: Let It All Hang Out (1985)
• Brás Cubas (1985)