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"Brasilianas" is a cinematographic work by Humberto Mauro. Written in photograms and combined with soundtracks, the series is made up of eight short films, which reveal a country through the lens of the Minas Gerais filmmaker. Produced between 1945 and 1964, during the Brazilian democratic period, Mauro sought the voice of his Brasiliana in popular songbooks. The images, mostly recorded in Volta Grande, Minas Gerais, reveal a rural, nostalgic, almost naive country that fights for the preservation of traditions, in the face of the threat of industrialization and modernization of the country.
The popular song Chuá Chuá, illustrated with scenes of rural life. Girl observes in window. A fountain drains water. A flower. The cattle grazing. River waters. Man seen from window of wattle and daub house. Girl hangs cage with bird. Man walks towards the gate. Ducks in river drink water. The popular song A Casinha Pequenina, illustrated with scenes from rural life. Hut surrounded by banana trees and a coconut tree. Children walk hand in hand, sit on the riverbank. Birds in cages. Again the little house and the vegetation that surrounds it, especially the coconut tree.
A visual interpretation of Brazilian popular songs "Azulão" and "Pinhal".
A look at the now abandoned production farms, substituted by power plants.
Musical rhythms inspired by work activities. Between 1974 and 1976, Leon Hirszman held three documentaries produced by the MEC about the songs of the rural workers in northeastern Brazil. In the trilogy, there is the documentation of the work songs of sugar cane, in Feira de Santana, the growers of cocoa, in Itabuna, and team workers in Chã Preta.
A morning in the farm shown with a beautiful musical background.
A cinematographic interpretation of a Casimiro de Abreu poem.
A Velha a Fiar illustrates a Brazilian folk song in which a being or entity is always predating another being, but is in its turn predated by some other animal, until the circle closes. It begins like this: an old woman is quietly weaving and a fly disturbs her; a spider eats the fly; a mouse eats the spider; a cat chases the mouse and so on...