É Tudo Verdade / It's All True

In the Boundaries of Reality

A lot has been said about the boundaries and imbrications between documentary and fiction, but this discussion gains new breath in polarized contexts, where disputes are stirred up concerning current historical processes and readings of the past are intensified, arising from present controversies. In a moment when contradictory narratives about reality are irradiated by quotidian conversation, the social media and the press, cinema also constitutes an appropriate ground for the production, circulation and dispute of discourses that try to dialogue with it.

All this is reinforced by the potential for sensitization deriving from the attention that cinema awakens in front, as well as behind the screen, i.e., as a corollary of the audiovisual resources inherent to its language, as well as to the enchantment and vigor that involve the cinematic universe, making exhibitions, festivals and award ceremonies genuine spaces for debate, with great repercussion.

In the case of documentary films, which claim a greater proximity with reality, constructing meanings from a certain truth, the spectator is more frequently invited to assume stances. Presently, the format has benefited from the proliferation of equipment for capturing and reproducing sounds and images and this has contributed to enlighten issues, exhibit demands and give visibility to the most diverse kinds of experience. With the conditions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the technical diversity that documentary cinema resorts to represents an important aspect for the reinvention of its forms of broadcasting.

With that in mind, Sesc takes part in the realization of the 25th edition of the International Documentary Festival – It’s All True, the most important showcase of this genre in South America. The institution’s efforts to deal with social distancing are translated into the online exhibition of the festival’s titles, as well as in the implementation of a cycle of debates, both through digital platforms. Transporting the audience to more or less distant realities, the set presented offers unique possibilities of contact with registries about different times, spaces, practices or conditions of life and, at the same time – and because of it – of revisiting ourselves.

Danilo Santos de Miranda

Sesc São Paulo Regional Director