When the Football World Cup starts on 12th of June, the whole world will look to Brazil. In contrast, the fact that there a military coup occurred exactly 50 years ago, barely attracted attention internationally.
In the four-part film documentary „Memórias do Chumbo – O Futebol nos Tempos do Condor” (2013 ), the Brazilian director Lúcio de Castro is addressing to the influence of the military dictatorships in Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay on football. The two chapters on Brazil and Chile had just been shown at the „11mm” Football Film Festival in Berlin. The military rule in Brazil (1964-1985) may have provoked significantly fewer deaths and disappearances than those in Chile (1973-1990) and Argentina (1976-1983), but the documentaries show nevertheless the inspiring nature of the authoritarian regime in Brazil – also in the influencing and instrumentalization of football.
Quickly after the coup in 1964 the military in Brazil took over important functions, at the Brazilian Football Federation CBF as well as in the clubs. General Médici finally celebrated Brazil´s third world title in 1970 as a „confirmation of the Brazilian people” and identified the „victory in athletic competition with the principles that we are to love in our struggle for national development”. Afonsinho, the „gentle rebel of Brazilian football” (so the German newspaper -taz-), reported in the documentary about the harsh rules back then. He got into trouble just because he wore long hair and a beard and did not wanted to be treated like a bond-slave. The involvement between the regime and the football, however, went further – even so far that the Brazilian ex-footballer Didí Pedalada was involved in the kidnapping of opposition Chileans in Porto Alegre as part of a „Operation Condor” action.
In Chile it was above all one event that forever put a shadow over football in the years of the dictatorship: The National Stadium of Santiago de Chile was converted immediately after the coup against Salvador Allende in 1973 into a prison, where the military tortured and murdered for months. But here some footballers offered resistance, too. The most famous is Carlos Caszely: At a meeting of the national team with Augusto Pinochet, he refused a handshake with the dictator. Caszely happened nothing because of his spontaneous refusal, but his mother fell into the hands of torturers afterwords.
At the 11th edition of the „11mm” Film Festival, Brazil was one of the focal points ´cause of the upcoming World Cup. And the organizers were able to provide aesthetically more interesting material than the occasionally a bit solemnly made tetralogy „Memórias do Chumbo”: „11mm” presented with the Canal 100 a legendary newsreel format from Brazil. Since the late 50s, it has set new standards in the visual presentation of football. „We were in Brazil the first, who filmed with ten cameras in the stadiums”, said Alexandre Niemeyer, the son of Canal 100 founder Carlos Niemeyer, during the presentation at cinema Babylon in Berlin.
A significant part of the Canal 100 material are scenes in black and white, which are played in a kind of super slow motion. This increases the dramatic action on the pitch, without estheticizing it to much. Particular is also the camera perspective: Often it is filmed from below, and the turf takes a lot of the screen. There footballers legs trying to win the ball, and in the presented slow downed viewing can be observed amazing synchronous movements in situations with maximum physical tension.
In addition, the Canal 100 documentaries such as „Brasil bom da bola” or „Futebol total” showed at the „11mm” Festival made also clear, why the football is considered as the „jogo bonito” in Brazil: The mischievous joy with which the „angel of crooked legs” called dribbler Garrincha curves around his opponents over and over again. Or the moment, when Pele lifting the ball over a defender in the World Cup final in 1958 and then shooting it into the goal with a volley. Moments in which the Brazilian „futebol arte” was born.
A further feature of the Canal 100 shots is that the audience is almost as often in the focus as what is happening on the pitch. People who nibble their fingernails ´cause of the excitement or lapse in ecstasy after a goal, others with perplexed expression or tears in the eyes – all them showed without comment with their rapt faces. In these pictures of sublime moments one may recall Nelson Rodrigues: In football only the ball counts? „There is nothing more unrealistic as this assertion”, countered the famous Brazilian playwright, who was also a passionate football fan. Who say this, takes „the football all his mystery, his whole pathos. The nastiest street footballer has Shakespearean dimensions. In football is the biggest blind man, who sees only the ball. What we are looking fot in football, is the tragedy, the shudder and pity.”
At the „11mm” Film Festival in Berlin two films about Pele („Isto e Pele”, 1974) and Garrincha („Alegria do Povo”, 1962) should be shown as well – documentaries about the two most important players from the golden era of the Brazilian football from the 1950s to the 1970s. That would have been also interesting to compare them with the remarkable BBC documentary „Gods of Brazil - Pele and Garrincha” (2002). In it both are portrayed to some extent as opponents: Smart Pelé as the successful „black” guy, who gets recognition from the „white” society because he adapts to their world and the empathic and fragile Garrincha as a outsider beloved of the masses, who not only perishing due to alcohol, but also ´cause the reactions of the bourgeois Brazil at the time of the military regime, when he left his wife and seven children because of the young singer Elza Soares.
However, immediately before the start of the festival the rights holders of the two films informed that they have decided to charge a fee of about 3,000 euros per performance. According to the „11mm” organizers this is not only an „excessive demand”, but also „completely beyond the financial resources” of the low-budget Festival. „Unfortunately, we were unable to dissuade the rights holders of their demand.”
Who wants to see more football films from Brazil, has to visit the World Cup host country by himself: There, the „11mm” partner Film Festival „Cinefoot” will take place before and during the World Cup at all WC cities. The „Cinefoot”-Tour starts in Rio de Janeiro from 22th to 27th of May.
www.11-mm.de
www.cinefoot.org