Neville D’Almeida: Cronista da Beleza e do Caos

Is he the creator of the Brazilian film movement called Marginal Cinema? Is he the author of an emblematic work of the visual arts? A misunderstood genius? A crazy guy? Who is Neville D’Almeida? This film seeks to rescue the role of filmmaker Neville D’Almeida by using many rare images, numerous interviews, vast archival and audiovisual material, and to show how an artist who was celebrated as the author of controversial works and the most persecuted director by the censorship bureau of the Brazilian Military Dictatorship, stood in good standing with the public through his adaptations of Nelson Rodrigues’ theater plays, the most important playwright in Brazil. Neville reached the second highest grossing in Brazil with the success of “Lady of the Bus” (1978), a record that lasted more than 35 years. Currently, the film holds the fifth highest grossing in Brazilian movie history. His first feature, “Jardim de Guerra” (“Garden of War”), was banned and never commercially displayed. About 50 years old, the film opened the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 1969, was awarded at the Brasilia Festival and screened at various festivals in Europe, having been celebrated as one of the icons of experimental cinema with a movie that explored the contradictions and existential musings of the Brazilian middle-class. Despite his numerous successes and films awarded at festivals, Neville’s projects were no longer invited to bid and he has not released a feature in commercial circuit from 1997 to this year. Censorship no longer existed, but the persecution in the last 20 years, according to Neville, came through what he calls the dictatorship of the invitations to bid. In addition to being a filmmaker and author, Neville is an artist and was responsible alongside Hélio Oiticica for the creation of a pioneering and remarkable video installation in the history of art with the work “Cosmococas”. Between irony, art and drama, “Neville D’Almeida – Chronicler of Beauty and Chaos” shows an important part of the history of Brazilian cinema.