Lars von Trier. Sacred-profane. Cruelty. Eroticism. Cinema.

Abstract

This article investigates Federal Censorship activity in Brazil, from Colonial Brazil (early 16th century to early 19th century) to the 1960s, during the 1964 civilian-military dictatorship, specifically in relation to the ban and release of the film Terra em Transe (TERRA…, 1967), directed by Glauber Rocha. We analyze the documents that the censorship produced, based on the opinions of the censors, to safeguard the regime, the Catholic Church, the constituted powers and the prevailing morality. During that time, censorship activity was extended to political control, with a concern with the maintenance of political order and national security, systematizing the work of repression. Knowledge of the events in question came from the censorship archives themselves; nevertheless, if archives are institutions of cultural memory, they are equally places of memory invested with a symbolic aura that goes beyond their mere material appearance and their functionality, and the documents from those archives reflect the activities that gave rise to them. Therefore, it is necessary to understand and to analyze the contradictions, the concealment and the unveiling of those archives, since they were produced under states of exception, characterized by documentary hypertrophy, defrauding the functional practices of the State, since its practices of surveillance and control mobilize a thorough documentation work. After analyzing the Censorship documents it was possible to conclude that the censors' job was to act as guardians of the 1964 civil-military dictatorship, the Catholic Church, the constituted powers and prevailing morals. However, such a repressive and authoritarian context opened perspectives for new thinkers and creators of freedom of expression.