The fate of Cinemateca Brasileira, home to the largest collection of films in South America, remains in jeopardy owing to the efforts of Brazil’s conservative government, led by Jair Bolsonaro, who in January 2019 dismantled the Ministry of Culture.
Cinemateca Brasileira, founded in 1940, is the longest-running cinema institution in Brazil. Among its holdings are a quarter-million rolls of film, including the complete collection of Cinema Novo figurehead Glauber Rocha and every game aired on soccer channel Canal 100 between 1958 and 1986.
Following the dissolution of the ministry, Bolsonaro’s government fired longtime staff at the archive, which had previously been considered at the forefront of the film-restoration field and an important training center for future technicians. In December of 2019, the state terminated its contract with ACERP, the private organization responsible for managing the facility, which soon found itself without air-conditioning, fire protection, or security.
On April 4, the government ceased paying remaining staff at the institution, who had formerly been contracted to the still-unpaid ACERP. Following the country’s spring coronavirus lockdown, protests in support of the organization began, the first one led by São Paulo Filmmakers Association and taking place on June 4; Cinemateca Brasileira’s unpaid workers struck just over a week later. A few days hence, the federal district attorney’s office in São Paulo filed suit against the government, demanding the renewal of ACERP’s contract through the end of 2020 as an emergency measure to protect the archive and its contents.
On August 3, the lawsuit was dismissed. Shortly thereafter, the government took possession from ACERP of the keys to the institution. The 41 remaining employees were summarily fired; their wages remain unpaid. The Brazilian Association of Audiovisual Preservation (ABPA) has met with the secretary of audiovisual and staff in an effort to secure the positions of the technical staff and thus the future of the archive, however tenuous.
The government has acknowledged the possibility of using emergency funds to rehire staff, but claims to be waiting on a letter from the Sociedade Amigos da Cinemateca (SAC), which would oversee the money, before deciding. The government has said that should the plan with SAC fall through, temporary technical staff will be hired until a new administrator can be put in place. Currently the archive has not a single technical staffer; how a transfer of institutional knowledge would occur in such a scenario remains to be seen.
Source: artforum.com
