Announcing the Luso World Cinema Blogathon

According to the Babbel website, 260 million people in the world speak Portuguese – about 220 million are native speakers. This makes Portuguese the sixth most spoken language in the world! Nine countries have Portuguese as their official language: Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea and São Tomé e Príncipe.

But why am I talking about that? Well, the language you all find when you reach this blog, in the title and in the non-italic text, is Portuguese. For five years, this blog was in Portuguese only, and since in 2016 it is a bilingual blog. The blog’s slogan is “classic film with a tropical twist”, and this is what I try to do: bring a Portuguese-speaking perspective to my analysis.

Carmen Miranda, born in Portugal, raised in Brazil

That’s why I got extremely excited when Beth Gallagher from the blog Spellbound by Movies talked about the Luso World Cinema Blogathon she was planning – because countries that speak Portuguese are called “Lusophone”. Cinema in Portuguese is rich and often unexplored by non-Portuguese speakers – and it should be discovered by everybody!

"City of God", 2002

The first films arrived in both Portugal and Brazil in 1896, and since the first decade of the 20^th century these countries were making movies. So far, one film spoken in Portuguese has won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film (1959's "Black Orpheus", and the award went to its French producers), and the Brazilian movie “The Given Word” (“O Pagador de Promessas”, 1962) won the Palme D’Or at Cannes.

Director Anselmo Duarte (shaking his hand with someone else)
arrives at Santos with the Palme D'Or

All the Portuguese-speaking countries, except Brazil and Portugal, were still colonies until the middle of the 20th century – this means that their national cinema developed in a different rhythm and circumstances. Furthermore, both Brazil and Portugal went through dictatorships in the past century, and it impacted the Lusophone cinema with censorship, shifts of subject and, of course, the organization of a resistance cinema.

Brazilian filmmaker Alberto Cavalcanti

The main filmmakers in Brazilian cinema are Mário Peixoto – who only directed the 1930 masterpiece “Limite” – Humberto Mauro, Glauber Rocha, Nelson Pereira dos Santos and Eduardo Coutinho, all of them already deceased. Right now, there are many new voices appearing in Brazilian cinema – but they are at risk since the new government supports censorship.

Humberto Mauro

In Portugal, the main filmmaker was without a doubt Manoel de Oliveira, who in 1942 was using techniques that the Italian Neorrealism would only begin to use six years later. Manoel de Oliveira lived to be 106!

Manoel de Oliveira

Not only Luso films made an impact in the film world, but also many people from Portuguese-speaking countries or descendants of Portuguese-speaking people work in film. For instance: classic Hollywood actress Mary Astor was of Portuguese ancestry from her mother’s side – in fact, her real name was Lucile Vasconcellos Langhake. Actor Daniel Brühl’s father was born in Brazil from German parents. Nowadays, in Hollywood, we have actors Rodrigo Santoro and Alice Braga, directors Carlos Saldanha and Fernando Meirelles, producer Rodrigo Teixeira (all born in Brazil), actress Camila Mendes (daughter of a Brazilian couple) and many more that will surprise you.

Mary Astor

So, for this blogathon, you can choose any film from a Lusophone country and also people born in Lusophone countries or people with Lusophone ancestry. And you can even talk about a song in Portuguese, like “Brazil”, a famous song by Ary Barroso that was featured in several movies.

The blogathon runs November 12^th until November 15^th. Pick a topic, grab a banner, and “vamos lá!” (“let’s go!”)

Here are some resources that may help you:

List of films from Portugal

List of films from Brazil

List of films from Cape Verde

List of films from Mozambique

List of films from Angola

List of films from Guinea-Bissau

List of films from São Tomé and Príncipe: :(

List of films from Equatorial Guinea

List of films from East Timor

List of famous people of Portuguese descent

The contributors:

Maddy Loves Her Classic Films - Tribute to Lena Horne
Pale Writer - Keanu Reeves in "Point Break" (1991)
Poppity Talks Classic Film - "The House of Sand" (2005)
Strictly Vintage Hollywood - Helena D'Algy and Tony D'Algy - film "A Sainted Devil" (1924)
Ana Roland - Sonia Braga
Wide Screen World - "Francisca" (1981)
A Shroud of Thoughts - "Aniki Bobó" (1942)
Realweegiemidget Reviews - Rue McClanahan in "They Might be Giants" (1971)
The Midnite Drive-In - "The Eyes of my Mother" (2016)
Voiceover - "Ossos" (1997)
Silver Screenings - Tribute to Carmen Miranda 
Movies, Silently - "Braza Dromida" (1928)
Musings of a Classic Film Addict - Carmen Miranda in "Down Argentine Way" (1941)
Pop Culture Reverie - "Central Station" (1999)
Crimson Kimono - "Gayjin - A Brazilian Odyssey" Part I (1980) and Part II (1985)
Moon in Gemini - "Dona Flor and her Two Husbands" (1976) 
Cinema Parrot Disco - "City of God" (2002)
In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood - Favorite Mary Astor films
Taking Up Room - "The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima" (1952) 
Silentology - Louise Fazenda in "A Bear Affair" (1915)
MovieRob - Tom Hanks in "Inferno" (2016), Keanu Reeves in "The Devil's Advocate" (1998), Mary Astor in "Across the Pacific" (1942) and Joe DeRita in "Three Stooges in Orbit" (1962)

The banners: