Alberto Cavalcanti left behind a vast body of work as a director, producer, editor, sound designer, screenwriter, and production designer, a true polymath. He excelled in all of these roles and was also a film theorist, widely known for his lectures and conferences. He worked around the world, especially in France, England, Brazil, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, as well as in Austria and Israel, across cinema, television, and theater. He spread his talent across nonfiction and fiction alike. He coined the term “neorealism” to describe what later would become established as the “documentary” genre. The Italians remain grateful for the unintended contribution.
The recognition he hoped for did not come—or was insufficient in his view. To correct this omission, he produced the anthology A Man and Cinema (1976), in which he offers a first-person panorama of his many achievements.
In this lecture, Cavalcanti’s trajectory is examined by Carlos Augusto Calil, chair of the board of Sociedade Amigos da Cinemateca and a former director of Cinemateca Brasileira, which is preparing a series of events and releases this year related to the filmmaker’s work.