Pictures of Ghosts (2023)

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PICTURES OF GHOSTS

This photograph by Alcir Lacerda

is from the late '60s.

It shows the Boa Viagem Church square,

South side of Recife.

This is the Boa Viagem Hotel,

a landmark

until it was torn down in the 2000s.

The Boa Viagem Hotel can be seen

in these images...

With Janet Leigh

and her daughters

on a trip to Recife

in the early '60s.

The square has changed a lot.

In the '70s, my small family came

to live in this seaside area.

About 250 meters from the beach.

Right here.

On what used to be mangrove.

PART ONE

THE SETBAL APARTMENApartment 102.

The Pioneiro building,

Number 207

on Jos Moreira Leal Street

in the neighborhood of Setbal,

in Recife.

The 1972 building

has only one floor.

No stilts.

The building is both solid and discreet.

The apartment's on the top floor,

to the back, away from the street,

where it's quieter.

The apartment

has three bedrooms,

one en suite,

a living room,

a guest bathroom,

and a kitchen/dining area.

The apartment used to

have a maid's room

which my mother, Joselice,

turned into a study

by knocking down a wall.

Later, it became a room

for watching films.

I was ten when we came

to live in this place,

which my mother financed

through a public bank in 1979.

This new house meant

a new beginning for my mother

after her separation

from my father, Kleber.

Joselice, my mother,

was a historian.

She studied the abolitionists

Joaquim Nabuco and Andr Rebouas

in 19th century Brazil.

At the Joaquim Nabuco Foundation

where she worked,

friends joked that she cheated

on Nabuco with Rebouas,

whose framed portrait

she had on a wall at home.

Joselice used to say that joke

packed a lot of Brazil in it.

Years after her death,

I got this tape

from a colleague of hers at the

Joaquim Nabuco Foundation.

One hell of a gift.

It's an interview

aired on Globo TV in 1981

in which she talks about

oral history.

Joselice, tell us about how oral history

will shape your new research.

Through oral history, we collect information

thats been left out of history.

We seek to evaluate the subject's life--

a part, shall we say,

somewhat autobiographical,

then we move on to verify

and collect the data

from that person.

It may seem like

I'm discussing methodology,

but I'm talking about love.

Today, when I remember my mother

and this apartment,

I understand this place

was radically altered by her.

Twice.

The first time was

at the end of the '80s

and I think there was a sense

of euphoria and uncertainty.

That's me with my mother,

near our home,

during the 1989 elections.

We voted together

once more in 1994,

one year before she died,

aged 54.

When Joselice fell ill in 1992,

I saw she had in this apartment

an extension of her own strength.

And that's when Joselice

renovated this place a second time.

It's as if the apartment

had turned into a house,

as if it had undergone surgery--

an aggressive but healing surgery.

Joselice assigned to

my brother Mcio,

at the time a 20-year-old

architecture student,

the mission of changing our house.

This was the first project

he ever designed.

A fine piece of work, with at least

one youthful reference to Oscar Niemeyer.

In the 2000s,

this place changed once more.

Over all these years,

I learned how time changes places.

What a great picture!

Martin and Toms,

right here.

Here, Toms!

Wow, that's a good picture!

Look.

Lemme see.

One way or another,

I lived in this place for 40 years.

OK?

Rolling.

Cut!

This apartment is also where

I began making films.

I thought that was good!

- Little less jumpy, huh?

- Yeah.

Im ready, Kleber.

I must have made

between 10 and 13 films.

The beach symbolizes paradise,

I think.

The focus on this camera is

nonexistent, Kleber.

Whenever youre ready.

That's good.

The rug's gone...

It's been shot from every angle...

In every room...

Over...

20 years, I'd say.

Some people would watch

these films and ask:

"Whats with that street,

in Setbal, in that apartment?"

Sidclay, wake up!

Its where I lived.

Thats the answer.

Joselice encouraged me

to make my own films

whichever way I could.

It was our house--

it was right there.

For posterity...

Neighbors acted as extras.

They seemed to enjoy it, I think.

Cut!

We also shot in our

next door neighbor's apartment,

It was good to turn the house

into a crowded, workshop

or studio.

I had told Pedro Sotero

and Fabrcio Tadeu,

the cinematographers for

Neighboring Sounds,

that I wanted to sh**t the street

at night without any special lighting,

which is a silly idea,

truth be told.

They showed me it was doable,

but when I saw the images,

I thought it best to light up the whole street.

It's when you bring together the mundane

and some cinema look.

Then it feels like a movie.

Mari, this is Sofia.

- Sofia, Mari.

- How are you, Sofia?

Fine, thanks.

Is there coffee, Mari?

- Yeah, I'm just finishing making some.

- I need some.

Maeve came over for dinner once.

You're so stuck up

with those glasses.

Tryin' to act smarter.

I thought it was funny

that she was sitting

in the same spot as in

the Neighboring Sounds scene.

What's that noise?

Oh, it's the cats.

A guy had broken into the house next door

to steal the gas container.

Later, of course,

we re-enacted the whole thing...

...with my telephone.

For many years, I photographed

the apartment and the neighborhood.

And this one time,

I took the picture of a ghost.

A presence.

The picture is right in the living room

of our apartment...

but there's a figure in it,

and I have no idea who it is.

To this day, I dont know

how this figure ended up

on my camera,

and on my film.

All I know is that

the photograph got around

and friends wanted to take me

to a Spiritist center.

They thought I was a medium.

Years ago, I got home from the cinema

with Emilie on a Sunday night.

Sat down at the kitchen table

to smoke a cigarette.

Then I heard barking

I hadn't heard in years.

It was Nico barking,

the neighbors dog.

There was just a problem:

Nico was dead.

He died two years after

Neighboring Sounds was released.

Can't get to sleep, Mom?

No.

He will keep on barking...

I got up, hearing Nico's howls and barks,

and suddenly

I understood the film was on Globo,

on national TV.

And our neighbors were

all watching the film.

Nico had become a ghost.

Nico had a bit part

in another of my films.

Spontaneously.

I must have recorded the sound

of Nico barking and howling

over a few years.

It was hard to believe

a dog could bark that much.

He'd bark because

he spent the weekend alone.

Meaning, he'd spend

all the weekend barking.

I tried talking to the neighbors,

to no avail.

They always found a way

to say Nico was not a problem.

He was actually advantageous.

They argued that,

if Nico's barking,

it means thieves will stay away.

This shot of Nico lying down

was seen just now.

Take a look.

The neighbors' house was

overtaken by termites,

which contaminated our building

and our apartment as well.

b*stards.

The termites ended up in another

film of mine Aquarius.

As it happens,

the neighbors' house, with its pool,

built in the 70s,

was overtaken by termites...

Which brought down

the roof over their kitchen.

After all those years,

the house went bald,

right in front of our living room.

The house fell into disrepair

and nature takes notice.

It occupies the empty spaces.

I love animals--

I love dogs, cats--

but these cats took over

and got on my nerves.

So f*cking annoying.

The netting over the window

is a cat deterrent.

And finally, this.

The house turned into

a bunker.

The house was never the

same again after Nico died.

The films photographed

the neighborhood's demeanor.

No, that building's fine,

it's the next one over.

There, that one there...

Too much.

Turn the big one a bit.

There you go,

turn it all the way up.

Where there were no bars,

bars went up.

You'd walk into the building

from the street-- there was no gate.

- Clodoaldo.

- Hey, thank you, Bia.

Should the receipt be

in your name or in Ricardo's?

I won't need one.

- Thanks for the coffee.

- Don't mention it.

Need anything,

let me know.

I always found it strange

because this neighborhood

never felt

especially dangerous.

SECURITY AND STYLE FOR

YOUR PROPERTY

Camera!

This was always

my favorite house on the street.

The only one with a short,

meter-high fence;

the large windows have no bars--

A phenomenon.

When we shot Neighboring Sounds

the owner told me that,

due to the short fence

and the unprotected windows

in the front yard,

no one had ever tried

to break into her house.

My name is

Clodoaldo Pereira dos Anjos.

Nice to meet you.

Your name?

Sometimes people ask if what

they see in the films

is production design.

No, it's no production design.

Or, sometimes I'd lie.

Of course it's production design...

And people would be impressed.

This other house behind the wall.

A friend lived here in the '80s.

When I looked at footage of our home

to work on this montage,

I saw there's the

apartment of our normal life

and theres the cinema apartment.

PART TWO

THE CINEMAS OF DOWNTOWN RECIFE

I love downtown Recife.

I love downtown Recife.

Twice, I cut that line,

then put it back in,

thinking it was redundant to say.

Then I thought you should say it

when you like someone.

A citys central area may remind you

of many other cities.

Katia Mesel.

THE IDEAL MARRIAGE

WHO HAD MARIELLE k*lled?

My relationship with downtown Recife

was forged through its cinemas.

Between the ages of 13 and 25,

more or less,

I'd go downtown several times a week

to watch movies.

Deep Throat II...

Downtown is a place part of the city

seems to have forgotten.

Like someone who was left

with no further explanation.

Many of the young

have never been downtown,

not even during Carnaval.

What can't be denied is that

the money has gone elsewhere.

I once heard someone say

the problem with downtown...

Is there's no air conditioning.

I have a sentimental map

of downtown Recife,

split by the filthy Capibaribe river

with streets and cinemas as landmarks.

The Art Palcio and the Trianon

were on Sun Street

right in front of their main rival

across the river--

the So Luiz,

on Dawn Street.

Facing each other,

all three of them staring,

in a stand-off

in the sun

and at dawn.

A STAR IS BORN

Most of these cinemas

are now gone, of course.

This is Joaquim Nabuco,

the abolitionist.

This little map covers an area

with street names such as Longing,

Hospice and Nymphs.

Hunger Alley,

and Photographers' Alley

Livro 7, a great bookstore,

no longer exists either.

"Freedom for the customer to choose a book."

It is now a church.

But downtown does

its own thing as well.

It's like...

"If you don't like me, f*ck You.

There are those who believe that

downtown Recife is dead.

Recifians say they're the 2nd best

Carnival in Brazil, 3rd in the world.

According to Dr. H. Martins,

the order is: Nice, Rio, Recife.

Is it? See for yourselves...

On the Boa Vista bridge we can see

the impressive, excited crowd.

A friend once wrote that

downtown Recife smells like tide,

fruits,

and piss.

Jomard Muniz de Britto

& Antnio Cadengue.

Downtown probably smelled like that

even when money was here.

Cludio Assis

& Matheus Nachtergaele.

Janet Leigh

& Tony Curtis.

I found these images

of myself in the lobby of the

Art Palcio cinema on the week it closed.

July 1992.

Almost 30 years later, I was sent

these photographs of the same place...

But taken a few days before

the cinema opened its doors in 1940.

At least 30 million people came

through this place in over 50 years.

I followed the last two years

of the Art Palcio

sh**ting photos and video

with a VHS camera.

I was a student at the time.

- Got two cruzeiros?

- No.

Got a thousand cruzeiros?

It was like being on a ship

as it's being prepped to be sunk.

Sometimes, it seemed like a factory

full of old machines.

It was at the Art Palcio

where I met Alexandre Moura.

Mr. Alexandre.

The projection room was hot

and had no air conditioning.

Alexandre would take his

shirt off to work and sit or lie on the floor,

where it was cooler

than sitting in the chair.

CinemaScope.

Let some air in.

Or else well die.

I showed The Godfather here.

I worked with this Godfather...

It showed here for four months.

Wasn't it on TV the other day?

The Godfather?

But my kids...

I got so fed up with that music

that I couldn't stand it any more.

On the last day we showed

The Godfather, I couldn't take it,

I was so anxious

to stop showing that film.

So I went over to the Trianon.

And I was a young man back then!

I went over to the Trianon

and the guy from the Trianon came over

here to finish the film

'cause I just couldn't do it.

You spend four months

watching the same film...

Mr. Alexandre told me how he dealt

with censorship under the dictatorship.

So two guys arrived.

"This film's impounded, y'hear?"

They opened up

the projection room...

- Who are you, sir?

- Federal Police!

"The film's impounded!"

Fine with me.

Ill leave early!

I once had a dream

in which Mr. Alexandre opened

the hatch on the projector

and the light made him disappear.

As in...

Just like in Terminator 2

which he showed

in sold out screenings.

Antnio!

No one's here.

Antnio!

Antnio!

After all these years,

I never got permission

to see the ruins of the Art Palcio.

There's a good side to that.

When I remember this cinema,

I also remember Alexandre,

who passed away in 2002.

Did I ever tell you

what that window's for?

- What it was for?

- No.

For the narrator.

When it was an art film...

Art films, there'd be a narrator

there from the radio.

You know, one of those narrators

who are good speakers?

And when would he speak?

While the film was being shown.

The film would be shown and he'd

talk during the session, right?

- What, into the cinema?

- Into the cinema.

Yeah, it wasn't for the radio,

it was into the cinema.

For the viewers.

Now those films...

Art films, right?

You'd only get people who...

- What exactly would he say?

- About...

He'd talk about the film, right?

In the film, this

and that happened, you see?

Those films about kings.

Really out there stuff.

- That's so strange, Mr. Alexandre.

- Isnt it?

When they announced the Art Palcio

and its neighbor the Trianon were closing,

I asked Mr. Alexandre if he was coming

to work on closing night.

Itll be a Tuesday, my shift.

So I'll be the one closing up.

I'll lock up the cinema

with a key of tears.

That's right.

Youre crying...

I'll lock up the cinema

with a key of tears.

Mr. Alexandre once told me about

a German manager at the Art Palcio

during the w*r.

Making this film,

I finally put the pieces together.

Pretty good story.

The Art Palcio was planned

to be an UFA cinema,

the major German studio run by

Goebbels and Hitler in the 30s.

The Germans saw the possibility

of expanding n*zi propaganda

in two strategic cities in Brazil:

So Paulo and Recife.

During the Getlio Vargas presidency,

who held sympathies for the n*zi regime.

Recife was visited 67 times,

between 1930 and 1937,

by the German machines

Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg.

So Paulo and Recife, each with

its own UFA Art Palcio

designed by the architect Rino Levi

who was, by the way, Jewish.

The office used to be here.

- Isn't it there?

- No, it's not...

The headquarters.

Alexandre would talk about

the German manager at the time:

Gunther, if I'm not mistaken.

The trapdoor leads to the balcony, right?

During wartime the German guy

would hide under there too.

Any trouble, he'd hide

and everything

would be quiet again.

With the w*r, plans for Recife's

Art Palcio at the Trianon building

being a UFA project were abandoned.

The building was taken over by

distributor and exhibitor Art Films

founded by Italian

immigrant Ugo Sorrentino,

who had been since 1931

the exclusive distributor

for UFA in Brazil.

And continued to be until 1941.

Months later, Brazil finally cut

commercial ties to Hitlers Germany.

These buildings came up in the '40s

and the money was here.

Recife's places of power

were carefully planned.

In the '70s, it started to

lose its prestige,

not unlike the cinemas.

Seems like parking space

was an issue as well.

Little by little, the money left

for the South Side of Recife.

Over there in Boa Viagem.

Same thing took place

in so many cities

around the world.

Printer cartridges and toner,

an English course,

an office,

some kind of prosthetics.

You can almost hear the intrigue:

American and n*zi spies,

Brazilians in favor and against

the country's neutrality in relation to the w*r.

Everyone plotting

Carnaval.

One can also imagine this building

becoming good affordable housing

for many people.

The US Consulate was here

during the w*r.

Another US Consulate of sorts

was in this building

not too far away.

Every Hollywood studio had offices

in this five-story building:

Metro, Universal,

Columbia Pictures, Fox,

Paramount, Warner,

United Artists, Disney.

There was even room for foreign companies

like Atlntida, Cindia, and Embrafilme.

At least that's how Brazilian

distributors in this building felt.

Scene 9, take 2!

This footage from

the short film Eisenstein

is the last surviving images

of the print distribution center

that supplied cinemas in

Brazil's North and Northeast.

Fiction films are

the best documentaries.

With the arrival of the internet,

the studio offices closed in the 2000s

and film distribution was

centralized in So Paulo,

about 2000 kilometers away.

The other day I dropped by the

Alfredo Fernandes building

and the new administrator informed me,

very authoritatively,

that there had never been any

film companies in that building.

These companies only occupied

the building for over 70 years.

Luckily I kept some

mementos from the distributors

at the Alfredo Fernandes building.

Right at the back of the building

was its trash.

Right over there

was Hollywood's trash

High quality American posters, trailers,

photographs, lobby cards, pressbooks...

Every week, hundreds of

such items were thrown out.

A well-known secret.

A lot of it was resold

by Paulo Barbosa

on the sidewalk in front of the Trianon.

These images are over 30 years old.

The cinemas went extinct, didn't they?

The poor ones with

no money sometimes buy...

sometimes I'll

give them printed materials.

If I got duplicates, I'll give it away.

Give 'em materials.

A lot of 'em don't have any money,

they just look.

Paulo Barbosa sold film memorabilia

but he also worked at the port authority.

RECIFE HERO EARNS A

LIVING AS STREET VENDOR

And he was one of the heroes

who saved Recife from a tragedy.

On May 12th 1985

he untied the mooring ropes

of a burning tanker at the port.

So many stories.

"CHRISTMAS BONUS: FIVE DEAD"

Mrs. Ricardo Pessoa de Queiroz.

Mrs. Julio.

Mrs. Antigenes.

This paper from 1977.

King Kong with Fay Wray, 1933

King Kong Escapes at the Trianon.

So Luiz had Dino de Laurentiis' King Kong.

Down there we've got

The Man from Hong Kong

and Costinha e o King Mong.

The 1977 King Kong fever.

And Sonia at the Boa Vista

in Dona Flor, third week.

Around 150 thousand people saw Sonia

in Dona Flor at the Moderno alone.

I ended up sh**ting a scene

with Sonia Braga

where the Moderno used to be.

For the film we made

together Aquarius.

There used to be windows with posters

on this wall of the Moderno cinema

but they've been filled in.

Each window had the poster

of a film, and two photos.

It was the first image

you ever saw of a film.

Like a gallery exhibit

but right on the street.

That's how I found out--

I was just a kid--

that they had made another

Star Wars movie

called The Empire Strikes Back.

Vadinho!

Some years ago,

I gained access to the

Moderno projection booth.

Now here is something

quite analog.

Manual.

Cinema marquees.

When digitizing these images,

something strange happened.

The image of this marquee,

archived for so long,

went through a digital mutation.

It was like the Moderno marquee

was trying to tell me something.

A tree covers part of the marquee

and it's like the film

becomes another film.

THE SILENCE...

Sometimes...

Marquees read like

secret messages to people.

Who's this Frankie?

Who's this Johnny?

My Name is Nobody.

My Name is Earthquake...

The city was marked all over

by fantasy words.

See Barbarella doing her thing.

"You'll scream in terror

and jump out of your seat

when you see Jaws!

Messages spelt carefully

and craftily.

NO ZIPPER

I like this series of photos

taken on the Duarte Coelho bridge

in different decades,

always with the So Luiz Cinema

in the background.

Johnny Guitar - this photo's from '57.

Pink Floyd: The Wall and The Entity --

March '83.

This one with O Quatrilho,

in the '90s.

Marclia Cartaxo and Suzana Amaral.

Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Chuck

Norris.

I shot this in Super 8

and watching these images

makes me dizzy.

How could someone go up there,

on that marquee,

no safety procedures,

10 meters up?

Crazy.

Ivan Cordeiro.

The Living Daylights.

I saw it at the So Luiz.

Fernando Spencer.

Marquees are timekeepers.

taken in Rio de Janeiro,

dates to when the military passed the

Institutional Act 5, tightening the regime.

John Boorman's Point Blank

showing at the Path

and sh*t going down

on Cinelndia.

Movie marquees, in a way,

commented on life in the real world.

It was a loss to cities, I think.

You say yes

That you understand me

You say no

You won't deliver, you won't sell,

You won't leave me, you won't let me go

But you leave everything (you left)

You leave hurt (you hurt)

You leave cold (you froze)

You leave me hanging (you hung)

You swear, swear (you swore)

You despise me (you spite)

You turn the corner (you cornered)

And you leave me hanging

I'm, I'm, I'm...

That's it for me

NO CENSORSHIP

There's no last kiss

And there aint no happy ending

Was it a coincidence that the Veneza's

marquee read Knock Off

the night it closed?

Was that a coincidence?

Cinemas that no longer exist

showing films about ghosts.

December, 1970.

The grand opening of

the Veneza Cinema, on Hospcio St.

The opening night film:

Universal's Airport

in 70mm.

Some days earlier,

a special screening of

Fox's Tora! Tora! Tora!

was offered to the Armed Forces.

Military band.

Military government.

The owner, Luiz Severiano Ribeiro Junior,

is seen here greeting the

governor of Pernambuco, Nilo Coelho

and Mrs. Nilo Coelho.

Her name is actually Maria Tereza

Coimbra de Almeida Brennand.

The Severiano Ribeiro company

was the largest film exhibitor in Brazil

during the 20th century.

At the Veneza,

they spared no expense.

It's kind of sad to become

attached to a product.

The problem lies in the fact

that you spent years of your life

going to this cinema,

so the relationship gets

emotional and confusing.

It was at the Veneza where I began

to pay attention to sound in films.

To these days, people talk about

the experience of image and sound

for Milos Forman's Hair

in 70mm at the Veneza.

I wasn't old enough to watch it.

The military government, on its last legs,

rated it 18 and over.

They found Hair subversive

and anti-military.

The film became a phenomenon in Recife,

more so than in any other city in Brazil.

Over 200 thousand people saw Hair

at the Veneza in almost six months.

CINEMA IS THE GREATEST ENTERTAINMENThe industry sets up the

infrastructure for distribution

then throws it all out.

They were building a mini

shopping mall inside the cinema

without exactly

tearing the whole cinema down.

This thing took root

inside the Veneza

like an alien organism

and the cinema became its host.

The city changes

every year, no doubt.

With a lot of demolition.

But I've never seen a mutation

as strange as this one inside the Veneza.

Seen from a distance,

the Veneza is this building here.

With these pillars.

Here was the Marist School,

a traditional school that closed down.

It's also turning into a shopping mall--

The Marist Shopping Mall--

Thus named in memory

of the school that closed.

A bit like the cinemas.

These images come from

Andr Antnio's The Cult,

a film that takes place

in a futuristic version of Recife.

These are the only surviving

images of that school.

Futuristic films

are also documentaries.

My my my it's so

sweet to grow old

Just like me

To be Brazilian,

born in Pernambuco

and making frevo

with God-given inspiration

This is one of my favorite ruins.

To be Brazilian,

born in Pernambuco

and making frevo

with God-given inspiration

The same beautiful mornings

at Dawn Street

My father's name,

and my son's, is Luiz

To be such a happy grandad

to Simone, Nelsinho and Moema

Three verses in the

sweetest of poems

To look at my dear Recife

the Polytheama Cinema.

With the grace that kindness

has allowed me

To live in such a world

of such sweetness and beauty

How sweet it is

to get old like me

PART THREE

CHURCHES AND HOLY GHOSTS

Just like me

To be Brazilian,

born in Pernambuco

and making frevo

with God-given inspiration

The same beautiful mornings

at Dawn Street

My father's name,

and my son's, is Luiz

To be such a happy grandad

to Simone, Nelsinho and Moema

Three verses that make up

the sweetest of poems

To look at my dear Recife

to love its people

With the grace that kindness

has allowed me

To live in such a world

of such sweetness and beauty

How sweet it is

to get old like me

Some 50 million people have been

through the So Luiz in 70 years.

I don't know anywhere in Recife

as unanimous as this.

Amin Stepple.

On the inside, the So Luiz

stimulates the imagination.

But as you leave,

it throws you back onto the street.

Cinemas can be places of kindness.

TAKE CARE

WELL BE TOGETHER SOON

I've always heard people referring to

Recife's So Luiz Cinema as a temple.

Part of local cinephilia

uses catholic imagery

when talking about the So Luiz.

Ive heard things like:

To see a Glauber or a Hitchcock

one should kneel in praise.

The cinema as a church.

Maybe its the

fleur-de-lis tainted glass.

Very famous.

It's ironic that the So Luiz and the

Duarte Coelho building above it.

were built where there

used to be a church.

The Chapel of the

Holy Trinity of the English.

British money in Recife

was no longer as important

as it had been in the 19th century,

especially after the w*r.

They demolished this

Anglican Church from 1838

to build a cinema in 1952.

The decoration celebrates

French king Louis IX.

It's all set up like a tent

during the Crusades,

with 16 shields on the walls.

The fleur-de-lis is everywhere.

And on the tainted glass.

Luiz Severiano Ribeiro,

the patriarch,

also spared no expense

on the So Luiz.

I witnessed two cinemas

that stopped being cinemas

and became evangelical churches

at the end of the '80s.

The Eldorado, in Afogados,

and the Albatroz, in Casa Amarela.

The transition took a few weeks,

for the cinemas remained unchanged.

Seats, dcor--

even the screens remained.

Dead cinemas

that came back as churches.

When I revisited these images,

I saw they might reveal the beginning

of profound changes in

Brazil's relationship to religion.

Catholics losing ground

and evangelicals gaining power.

I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH

HIM WHO STRENGTHENS ME

They bought cinemas.

When I was a kid, I saw,

on this exact screen at the Albatroz,

a Passion of the Christ film

starring Fernanda Montenegro.

An Easter week movie.

There are different ways now of

stepping out of the trance,

of leaving the temple,

or exiting the movie.

Miguel and Bruno.

The So Luiz is a public cinema

which no longer has the logic

of a commercial screen.

Nor should it.

A cinema like this

helps build character

Geraldo Pinho.

Gustavo Coimbra.

Films have a natural tendency

towards melodrama.

This is often in the image itself.

But also makes sense to

embrace the melodrama.

Like listening to

Nelson Ferreira's Evocao.

I found in one of the rooms

at the So Luiz,

one of the projectors

from the old Trianon Cinema,

the Art Palacios next door neighbor.

Kept as a donation.

And scrap metal.

The Trianon building.

On the other side of the river,

Where Mr. Alexandre used to work.

Good evening.

Good evening.

- How are you?

- I'm fine.

You got the address?

These three stops here--

are we picking someone up

or did you just put them

to trick the app

and drive around?

To trick the app

and drive around.

Sometimes, I like to

go home, and to unwind

and drive around in an Uber.

But if I just put the address,

it chooses a route

that's boring and dull.

So, to get around that--

I once had

an argument with a driver

who wished to follow the route

the app gave him,

and I asked him to go

another way, and, well...

Want me to turn off the music?

No, you can leave it on.

Who is that?

Herb Alpert.

This guy's helped me

get through a lot.

How is he helping you?

He's an inspiration.

I'm learning to play the trumpet.

So I listen to him a lot.

Because he's good.

- Do you play anywhere?

- I play in a frevo orchestra.

Carnaval music.

It's got that upbeat energy I like.

Cool.

And what do you work with?

I work in films.

Films?

But, do you work in a cinema

or do you make movies?

I work with a movie theater.

but I make films, I...

I write and direct films.

Thats cool!

You an actor?

I want a picture later, all right?

- Youll take my picture?

- I want a picture with you, all right?

I don't get artists

in my car everyday, do I?

I'll take one of you as well.

Have you ever done a telenovela?

No, Ive never done a novela.

I bet you know lots

of famous people, right?

I know some famous people, yeah.

Movies are great.

The other day I found out

I have a superpower.

- You have what?

- A superpower.

You have a superpower?

- Yeah.

- Yeah?

The power to turn invisible.

You turn invisible?

Yeah, but not, like, disappear...

tele-transportation, jump

somewhere else, y'know?

But, like...

I turn invisible,

but in the same spot I am.

Then, when I want to,

I reappear.

Get it?

So...

So do you...

Do you turn invisible at will?

Or do you suddently turn invisible

in the middle of a conversation?

Yeah, sometimes I disappear

by accident as well.

But...

I try to plan the moments

I turn invisible

and that I reappear, got it?

You are there, arent you?

Right here, right here!

Is the music too loud?

Want me to turn it down?