A construção de João Goulart como Personagem histórico no filme Jango ( 1984, direção de Silvio Tendler): breves reflexões sobre a escrita da história a partir do cinema documentário

BRIEF REFLECTIONS ON WRITING HISTORY FROM THE DOCUMENTARY CINEMA

Abstract

This article addresses the relationship between Documentary Cinema and History of Brazil from the film Jango (1984, directed by Silvio Tendler). Through the analysis of the formal/aesthetic aspects of the documentary, especially with regard to the construction of the historical character João Goulart within the film narrative, we seek to demonstrate how the political-ideological positioning of the filmmaker Silvio Tendler took place in the context of production and release of the movie. The analysis of the documentary shows that the film narrative built by the filmmaker Silvio Tendler has as one of its main characteristics a series of narrative strategies (testimonies, editing, soundtrack, image selection, voice over narration) that contribute to the politician João Goulart is described in the film in a very positive way. We argue that, in the documentary, João Goulart plays the role of a “tragic hero” within the scope of recent Brazilian Political History. In this sense, we draw attention to the fact that the aesthetic/formal elements of the documentary were not defined at random, but rather based on the political-ideological positioning assumed by the filmmaker when the film was produced and released, a time when Brazil was by the process of transition from the Dictatorship to redemocratization. In addition to establishing a dialogue between the documentary and the historical context in which it was produced and released, we intend to demonstrate how the film raises very pertinent questions about the writing of History.