É Tudo Verdade / It's All True

Hot wars and cyber-wars, global pandemics and fast-track vaccines, military coups and online resistance, mass outpourings of refugees and intimate reinventions, the climate crisis and affirmations of identity: fasten your seatbelts, the 21st century promises to be a rough ride.

A new arrival in the 19th century, and the truest expression of the 20th, cinema in this fledgling century, inventoried in all its power and diversity by Mark Cousins in one of our opening films, states its case anew. Festivals like It’s All True remain vital mirrors of these dynamic processes, and especially so under such a problematic audiovisual conjuncture, as people return to movie theaters in the apparent yet-uncertain tail-end of a major health crisis, and with a set of new habits instilled by the age of streaming.

After two years of severe sanitary restrictions imposed by a tragic pandemic, the It’s All True festival has reformulated for its 27th edition, adopting a hybrid program with a partial return to theaters (in strict compliance with priority health precautions) and an intense online schedule. True to that same commitment to safety, the International Documentary Conference, in partnership with Itaú Cultural, will once again be conducted entirely in virtual format. The 19th edition of the Conference dialogues with the festival’s new cycle, It’s All True Classics, a program devoted to the appreciation of world documentary heritage.

It is a privilege to be able to celebrate, in one and the same edition, the lesser-known facets of the work of three pivotal figures in Brazilian film. Firstly, the cover photo and art for this festival pay tribute to the extraordinary collaboration the producer Luiz Carlos Barreto made to the modernization of Brazilian documentary photography during his time as a photojournalist for the weekly magazine O Cruzeiro during the 1950s and ’60s. Secondly, a special cycle highlights the originality of Ana Carolina as a documentary filmmaker, prior to her becoming one of the most instigating and complex voices in Brazilian fiction film from Sea of Roses (1978) onwards. And, finally, a pioneering complete retrospective of the documentary cinema of Ugo Giorgetti shows how his excursions into nonfiction stand on equal footing with his fiction filmmaking in singling him out as the foremost filmic commentator on contemporary São Paulo.

We thank all of the filmmakers, producers, technicians, and distributors who entrusted their documentaries to us, whether selected or not, especially in the present climate of sanitary and commercial uncertainty.

Our immense gratitude to our partners and sponsors for their loyalty to the festival, a group that traditionally rallies behind this annual showcase for the cream of the crop in Brazilian and foreign documentary filmmaking.

When the visual artist Carlito Carvalhosa (1961–2021) honored It’s All True with the creation of our prizewinners’ trophy, he set the bar—as in everything he did—for excellence, elegance, and intelligence, and that continues to stand as a challenge to all the films hoping to be their annual recipients. His untimely passing last year leaves us with pain, grief, and a commitment to honor his legacy. This 27th edition is dedicated to his memory.

In the name of the whole It’s All True team, welcome, and have an excellent festival!

AMIR LABAKI
Founder and director of It’s All True – International Documentary Festival