Brazilian Popular Culture and Religion - Essay Example

Brazilian Cinema Introduction The Brazilian cinema scenery back in the early 19th century through the 60s to the present 20th century seemed to be gaining substantial ground in both entertainment and passing across relevant message of importance to address socio-political issues that Brazil as a country and a society was facing at that particular point in time. The Brazilians appeared to be looking for a common sense of identity especially characterized by the youth and emerging middle class in cadence with liberalizing political power and harmonization of a popular culture that was emanating and busy changing the Brazilian social aspect as the rest of world was experiencing revolutionary changes of the same magnitude (Nagib 67). Brazilian cinema prospect captured different livelihoods, beliefs and lifestyles of different groups of people, those that lived in cities or towns and those that lived in marginal areas with unfavorable conditions like the semi-arid areas where the early Portuguese first settled commonly referred to as sértao in Portuguese. Several influential renowned cinema film directors like Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Glauber Rocha, Andrucha Waddington, Jorge Furtado, João Tikomiroff, and Carlos Diegues Walter Salles amongst many others took the center stage in making these films with deeply embedded and well played out themes or motifs that clearly communicated message of importance. It is due to collective effort of these film productions developments in the 60s and 70s that led to the rise of a pro-modern movement “cinema novo”, new cinema (Rodriguez 109). that was very influential in addressing issues to do with social equality and intellectualism in Brazil as opposed to the traditional cinema technique that were ineffective. The major themes captured by these films as portrayed in the two main settings, rural and urban, are the power in the Brazilian political landscape, religion and Brazilian popular culture. Power In the Brazilian context, power is closely associated with corruption in governments. The corruption in turn has led to socio-political and economical oppression to its citizens making the poor or the peasants much poorer while making the rich much wealthy creating a very big power gap between the two (Xavier 86). Power when misused is normally associated with the might or tyranny, and greed in any given society which are easily visible in the Brazilian societal and governmental structure where the rich oppress the poor because of the difference classes created and the powers that come attached. Power dominance is shown in the film ‘Vida Secas’ by Nelson Pereira Dos Santos in 1963 best capturing a rather rural setting in Brazil northeast or Nordeste region. The film’s plot development even though influential as an established film piece in cinema novo clearly tells of sufferings associated with the misuse of power especially by the political leaders who bring about poverty, oppressions and inequalities amongst other social vices. The power being asserted on the characters’ of Fabiano, Sinha, Soldado Amarelo and the two boys not given actual names, lives have developed devastating effects such that each one of them has accepted the poor sand unbecoming societal state that he or she is eventually drastically forced to live with. The society around the characters thrives on the negatives such as corruption and injustice. The film simply shows the destitute nature and hopelessness that the citizens have grown to develop due to poverty and hopelessness that amounts due to abuse of power by the government that should be otherwise fighting and giving people a sense of hope and admiration by fighting the poverty that has ravaged the northeast. The misuse of power is seen in the film “Black God, White Devil” (1964) directed by Glauber Rocha. The film by Rocha depicts one corrupted country that has evil roots sank in every corner of the society. Corruption gets created as abuse of power through greed and selfishness by the highest authority in the land which in this case involves the brutal tyrants and prophets of false origin who are taking advantage of the peasants so as to assert their power of influence over them (Xavier 132). The rich continue to manipulate the poor because of their humble state as seen with the character Manuel a livestock herder is cheated upon on his financials by his own boss. The Brazilian urban landscape however seemed to be taking a different turn however as the rural faction was taking all the ugliness of power misuse in humility the urban counterparts were taking it on a different pedestal. The Military had Brazil’s presidential and governmental legislative power and executive jurisdiction through a successive coup in 1964, an ironical political scenario showing greed for power by institutions that are bound by oath to serve under the president and protect the will of the people. The middle class students comprising of the youthful groups in Rio De Janeiro one of brazil biggest city could not take this lightly and hence decided to join hands with guerilla movement that was out to fight for proper leadership and fair political goodwill as opposed to the dictatorial approach by the armed forces (Huggins 60). Power as a political tool was used positively in the Brazilian urban setting, liberalizing urban dwellers that are well educated and vibrant with economic activities as opposed to the rural population in marginalized regions. Religion Religion as a social form of spiritual identity is important factor in Brazil’s societal setting as it is present in ultimately all the societies from different geographical locations along the world. The Brazilian population is mainly made up of Christians who are Catholics and who believe in God. Religion in Brazil has been through a lot transformation in relation to rich cultures of Afro-Brazilian heritage (Port 12). The Afro Brazilian heritage intensively involved cult’s rituals and practices. In the film “Black God, White Devil”, 1964, directed by Glauber Rocha as the title suggest, captures the very aspect of religion in its motif and theme especially in a poor rural setting. Religion in the Brazilian context seems to be connected with what most of the population identifies as fate to the extent that everything happens is seen as the desired effect of the supernatural being they pray to. Characters like Manuel who is a peasant are quickly to attaché their existence to supernatural being through saints that are believed to be the mediums to the higher calling (Abreu 38). Religion in this particular society in the film is associated with fraud and treachery because the saints take advantage of religion to spread all manner of shenanigans and use people who believe in the importance having a religion. Religion in rural settings appears to be taken seriously as a beacon of hope that shines light on the corruption and injustice in the leadership structure that should offer hope and economic empowerment that can liberate the peasants financially that make the larger population in the rural setting and eventually get out of their misery. “Black God, White Devil” gives a false sense of religious hope because of the superstition practices that characterize that have been modeled with Christianity to give misdirection so that the religious “faithfuls” can take advantage of the innocent. ‘Central station’, 1996, is a film by Walter Salles that captures the religion aspect as well. It is a story of a young boy set out from the capital city of Rio de Janeiro travelling to northeast of Brazil that referred to as Sertáo because of the marginalized conditions and unsuitable climatic condition that symbolizes rural setting scenery in Brazil. The boy goes looking for the father and a surrogate mother. Religious views in urban areas are different because it more liberal and open minded as opposed to the rural religion setting that is based on superstition practices (Port 23). The fact the Boy is looking for a surrogate mother shows the degree of mindedness the city individuals have come to develop based on the social settings in the city, well this can be attested by popular culture evolution or merely education levels in the cities (Pastina 163). The search of a surrogate mother in a rural setting could prove fruitless because it would be going against the basic beliefs. A similarity is however seen as the Walter Salles keeps on referring to a popular faith and Catholicism as dominant religious common denominator amongst the Brazilians because the towns that are on the way to the Northeast of Brazil appear to be having a religious pilgrimage. Brazil culture and religion appear to intermarry at some point in history evolution because the Afro-Brazilians are the generators of rich culture that started out as cults and traditional religious practices believed to have been borrowed from their ancestors. Brazilian Popular culture Brazilian Popular culture can be identified with the urbanization trend that Brazil urban center have adopted throughout the 19th century. It involved evolution of a different set of modern culture as opposed to the traditional cultures or way of life that seems to be fading away slowly as majority of the population moves into cities from the rural settings (Nagib 156). ‘Tieta Do Agreste’, 1996, by Carlos Diegues is one such film that has the theme of Brazilian popular culture embedded in its plot. The film is borrowed from one the most famous Brazil novelist Jorge Amado that was publicly published in 1977 about a lady Tiéta who heads for her hometown after 26 years. It would be correct to say the music industry was influential in the evolution of the popular culture because of the mentioned film soundtrack composition by a popular culture icon Caetano Veloso. The lady Tiéta is rich as well even though the film does not clearly explain the source of her opulence but gives a clue that the urban popular culture has something to do with improved living standards characterized by wealth acquisition. The popular culture seemed to have found its way in the emerging middleclass and rich urban dwellers due to a change in lifestyle (Rodriguez 118). Tiéta is a woman who is financially independent so it appears and has a child whose father no one knows anything about, this would signify the popular culture with the position of woman in the society because she seems to have made it on her own without the stewardship of a man as the traditional culture would coherently advice. Popular culture is however portrayed to trace back its original roots to the traditional culture that still has its effects and traces in the rural setting as seen when Tiéta returns to her hometown in Northeast brazil after having being chased away to find her sense of belonging if not originality. The Brazilian popular culture in urban centers as the case of “The Man Who Copied”, 2004, a film by Jorge Furtado takes a different approach in talking about the Brazilian popular culture and its emergence in the middle class. Brazilian popular culture is tackled from a perspective that lacks originality because of the cliché of everyday life that becomes a boring routine that many after a period of time want to get out of (Pastina 170). Conclusion The major themes captured by these films as portrayed in the two main settings, rural and urban, are the power in the Brazilian political landscape, religion and Brazilian popular culture (Rodriguez 122). The films have been influential in addressing the aforementioned issues through the guise of entertainment but passing a message of importance that would easily tell a story about Brazil as an emblem of southern America’s history and culture to the rest of the world. The film directors were very effective with their approach to ensure techniques and style used effectively communicated what the Brazilians wanted to associate with. Power was mainly misused by the government individuals oppressing people especially in the rural setting while the urban resisted violently. Religion in Brazil has deep roots sank in the social lives of majority especially Christianity-Catholicism even though the rural population still has traditional aspects of superstitious practices while the urban dwellers have an open minded approach towards religion. Brazilian popular culture was very eminent especially back in the 1960s the emerging middleclass and rich youth individuals had a secular culture develop that was different from the normal traditional culture. The popular culture made the urban dwellers more aggressive in their fights for their rights and sense of identity as opposed to the rural setting who did not exactly fight for their curtailed rights. . Works Cited Abreu, Alzira Alves de. "Brazils Guerrilla Trap." History Today (2010): 35-40. Hernandez-Rodriguez, R. Splendors of Latin Cinema. New York: ABC-CLIO, 2009. Huggins, Martha. "Legacies of Authoritarianism: Brazilian Torturers and Murders’ Reformulation of Memory." Latin American Perspectives (2009): 57-78. Nagib, Lúcia. Brazil on Screen. New York: I.B.Tauris, 2007. —. The New Brazilian Cinema. London: I.B.Tauris, 2003. Pastina, Antonio C. La. "Telenovela reception in rural Brazil: gendered readings and sexual mores." Critical Studies in Media Communication (2007): 162-181. Port, Mattijs Van De. "Candomblé in pink, green and black. Re-scripting the Afro-Brazilian religious heritage in the public sphere of Salvador, Bahia." Social Anthropology (2007): 3-26. Xavier, Ismail. Allegories of Underdevelopment: Aesthetics and Politics in Modern Brazilian Cinema. Minnesota: U of Minnesota Press, 1997. Read More