Passages to reality: the case of Brazilian cinema

This article frames the utilisation within film of artforms such as painting, theatre and music as a bridge or a ‘passage’ to political and social reality. Such ‘intermedial passages’ can be observed in productions from all over the world throughout film history, however this article will address a national phenomenon, more specifically, selected works by filmmakers from the states of São Paulo (Beto Brant and Tata Amaral) and Pernambuco (Cláudio Assis, Paulo Caldas and Marcelo Luna), in Brazil, who over the years have bridged across their regions’ very different social history and geographic situation by means of a shared artistic and political platform