Announcing the Fifth Luso World Cinema blogathon

 

Hello again from sunny Brazil! This year has already brought something brand new: an Oscar for a Lusophone country with the victory of “I’m Still Here” in the Best International Film category. It was the fifth time Brazil was up for this award – it’s a shame that Portugal and other Lusophone countries were never even nominated. Because of this historical win, we - that is, me and Beth from Spellbound with Beth Ann - decided to make a change in the Luso blogathon this year: instead of hosting on the usual date, May 5^th, we decided to start the event on June 19^th, when we celebrate Brazilian Cinema Day. The event will continue until June 22^nd – plenty of time to contribute with a text and/or read the entries.

The rules are simple:

The Luso World Cinema Blogathon once again accepts posts about films made in Lusophone countries, that is, countries that speak Portuguese – see the list below –, and film stars with Luso heritage, that means, film stars of Portuguese descent. This list includes natives like Carmen Miranda, Rodrigo Santoro, Sônia Braga, Raul Roulien, Maria de Medeiros and also Keanu Reeves, Mary Astor, Louise Fazenda, Tom Hanks, Joe DeRita, James Franco, Daniel Brühl, Auli'i Cravalho (the voice of Disney's Moana!), Nestor Paiva, Amy Poehler,  Dorothy DeBorba and many more you can find listed HERE. You can write an overview of those people's lives or careers or focus on a specific film or TV show they made. We also accept the quite rare portraits of Portuguese, Brazilian or other Luso people in film, like in 1937’s “Captain Courageous”, in which Spencer Tracy plays a Portuguese sailor, for instance.

Now a little intermission to know more about us, your hostesses:

Here are a few lists of movies from Lusophone countries:

List of films from Portugal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Portuguese_films

List of films from Brazil: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Brazilian_films

List of films from Cape Verde: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Cape_Verdean_films

List of films from Mozambique: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Mozambican_films

List of films from Angola: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Angolan_films

List of films from Guinea-Bissau:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Bissau-Guinean_films

List of films from São Tomé and Príncipe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_S%C3%A3o_Tom%C3%A9_and_Pr%C3%ADncipe

List of films from Equatorial Guinea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Equatoguinean_films

List of films from East Timor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:East_Timorese_films

We have banners for you to spread the news about the blogathon:

Mary Astor

Ilhéu de Contenda / The Island of Contenda (1996)

A Trança Feiticeira / The Bewitching Braid (1996)

Trikal (1985)

Air Conditioner (2020)

Rio, Zona Norte / Rio, Northern Zone (1957)

Mulheres de Beira / Border Women (1923)

Mark Ruffalo

Carmen Miranda

Tom Hanks

Maria de Medeiros

Jasmine Guy

Yvonne Furneaux in Lisbon (1956)

Lena Horne

Who's doing what:

Crítica Retrô: Silvino Santos, a filmmaker from the jungle

Spellbound with Beth Ann: That time when TCM called Carmen Miranda a Latin AND Hispanic icon

Realweegiemidget Reviews: That Man from Rio (1964)

Cinematic Catharsis: Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972)

Hollywood Kitchen: Louise Fazenda's Cookie Recipe

Speakeasy: Zé do Caixão a.k.a Coffin Joe

Classic Film and TV Corner: The Miranda Sisters

Taking Up Room: Mary Astor in "Dodsworth" (1936)

Moon in Gemini: Keanu Reeves in "Tune In Tomorrow" (1990)

A Shroud of Thoughts: Nestor Paiva

The Midnite Drive-In: The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954, set somewhere in Brazil) 

18 Cinema Lane - Jasmine Guy's episodes of  "Touched by an Angel"

Silver Screenings - Storm Over Lisbon (1944)

The Luso World Cinema Blogathon begins

Bem-vindo!

Welcome!

Beth Gallagher from Spellbound by Movies and me here from Crítica Retrô are happy to be hosting the Luso World Cinema Blogathon. We are excited to see so many bloggers writing about cinema made in Portuguese and also paying a tribute to film performers from Portuguese ancestry.

Without further ado, let’s start with the chica-chica-boom-chic!

Day 1 entries

Ruth from Silver Screenings writes about the fashion influence of Carmen Miranda.

Cinema Parrot Disco brings a review of 2002’s “City of God / Cidade de Deus”.

My co-hostess Beth talks about the beautiful art deco covers of Cinearte magazine.

Maddy writes a tribute to Lena Horne, talking about her life, work and her involvement with the civil rights activism.

MovieRob is here with his first contribution: a review of 2016’s “Inferno”, starring Tom Hanks, an actor from Portuguese heritage.

Quiggy from The Midnite Drive-In writes about the unique Portuguese horror “Os Olhos da Minha Mãe / The Eyes of My Mother”

Terence from A Shroud of Thoughts writes about the morals scrutinized in Manoel de Oliveira’s “Aniki Bobó”.

Day 2 entries

Dan from Crimson Kimono reviews “Gaijin– A Brazilian Odyssey” (1980) and finds some things in common with Japanese people who migrated to Brazil in 1908.

Rebecca from Taking Up Room reviews “The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima” (1952), a B-movie about the appearance of the Virgin Mary to three children in 1917.

Annette from Hometowns to Hollywood gives us a view of Mary Astor’s life and the places she lived in.

MovieRob is back with a guy everybody likes: Keanu Reeves, who is from Portuguese heritage. Rob now reviews“The Devil’s Advocate” (1997).

Be sure to visit Spellbound by Movies for Days 3 and 4 of the blogathon!

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: