In the Land of the Amazons
About In the Land of the Amazons
Silvino Santos's camera travels the Amazon for the businesses of J. G. Araújo. The film shows Indigenous work, factory floors and workers leaving at the end of a shift, fishing on the river and salting the catch, then rubber trees and the steps that turn latex into sheets for export. It was built as a display of those holdings, not as a story with characters.
Cast & crew
More about In the Land of the Amazons
Directed by Agesilau de Araújo and Silvino Santos. Santos photographed it, and both men are credited as editors. The Portuguese merchant Joaquim Gonçalves de Araújo paid for it as publicity for his rubber properties, warehouses, and cattle farms. It was shown at the International Exhibition of the Centenary of Independence in Rio de Janeiro, which ran from 1922 into 1923. The theatrical premiere was on 12 January 1922 in Rio. Silent, with Portuguese intertitles.
Themes
Background
Brazil marked one hundred years of independence with an international exhibition in Rio in 1922–23. Araújo used the film as a storefront for Amazon trade at that fair.
In film history
It is one of the earliest feature-length films to put Amazon labor, fishing, and rubber production in front of a city audience in Rio.
Making
Araújo commissioned the film so his seringais, sheds, and ranches could be shown to visitors at the independence centenary exhibition. Santos, who had already filmed the river, shot the footage and shared the direction with Agesilau de Araújo.
Look
Silvino Santos shot the factories, the river fishing, and the rubber groves. The camera stays on the steps of each job, from the tree to the export sheet.
Music
Silent, with Portuguese intertitles.
Preservation
The Cinemateca Brasileira holds a copy. A 35mm print is at the Museu Amazônico in Manaus. A public copy has also circulated online since at least 2018. The 2023 Prague rediscovery was Santos's earlier film, not this one.
Notes
- The Portuguese title is No País das Amazonas, also spelled No Paiz das Amazonas in period sources.
- Araújo, known as J. G. Araújo, lived from 1860 to 1940.
- Santos's earlier Amazon feature, Amazonas, o maior rio do mundo, was the film recovered in Prague in 2023. This 1922 picture is a different title and already had archive copies.
- The Museu Amazônico at the Federal University of Amazonas in Manaus holds a 35mm print, along with about 150 of Santos's glass negatives.
Scenes
- Workers leave a factory at the end of the shift.
- Fishermen salt their catch on the river.
- Latex is worked into sheets ready to ship.
Also available
- Cinemateca Brasileira
- Museu Amazônico, Manaus