Around Brazil

1932 Documentary 71 minutes Directed by Luiz Thomaz Reis

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About Around Brazil

Major Luiz Thomaz Reis's documentary is cut from his footage of the Rondon Commission in the Center-West and the North. Canoes go down the Ronuro into the Xingu and up the Coluene. The film shows Camaiurá, Aueti, and other groups, anthropometric measuring, then the Araguaia, the Karajá, and the Indian Protection Service post on Bananal Island. It continues to the Tocantins, the rubber, cacao, and Brazil-nut trade, Fordlândia on the Tapajós, and frontier towns including Tabatinga, Iquitos, and Rio Branco.

Cast & crew

More about Around Brazil

Reis, an army major, was the commission's cinematographer on Marshal Cândido Rondon's expeditions. The 1932 feature, also titled Ao redor do Brasil, runs 71 minutes and is assembled from fragments of three of his films. It is black and white, with Portuguese titles. AdoroCinema and IMDb list the length as 1 hour 11 minutes.

Themes

  • A commission canoe on the Xingu
  • Measuring and naming the people met on the bank
  • Rubber, cacao, and a Ford town in the forest
  • Rondon Commission
  • Xingu
  • Camaiurá
  • Karajá
  • Fordlândia
  • Luiz Thomaz Reis

Background

The Rondon Commission was the Brazilian state's instrument for mapping the interior and making contact with Indigenous nations. Reis's camera was part of that work.

Making

Reis had been filming Rondon's routes since the 1910s. This 1932 reel is a compilation, not a single season's shoot.

Look

Reis photographed the rivers from the canoes and the measuring sessions in the villages.

Preservation

A copy from the Cinemateca Brasileira, under IPHAN, is on Wikimedia Commons.

Notes

  • The Internet Archive copy opens on the Ronuro and times a 40-day trip to the meeting of the Ronuro and the Coluene, the two streams that form the Xingu.
  • Ford's rubber plantation at Fordlândia, about 120 kilometers from Santarém, is one of the stops.
  • Groups named in that copy include the Camaiurá, the Aurisevu, the Aueti, and the Ianahuquá, then the Karajá on the Araguaia.

Scenes

  • Canoes come down the Ronuro to the fork that starts the Xingu.
  • An anthropometric card is filled in for a man just met.
  • The camera looks over the rubber plantings at Fordlândia.

Also available

  • Wikimedia Commons (Ao redor do Brasil (1932) - Cinemateca Brasileira - IPHAN.webm)