The impact of the coming of sound in cinema in Brazil: 1926/1936

• Grant number: 11/20429-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date until: March 01, 2012
• End date until: February 28, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Cinema
• Principal Investigator: Luciana Sá Leitão Corrêa de Araújo
• Grantee: Carlos Roberto Rodrigues de Souza
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The transition from silent to sound and talking pictures, which takes place from 1926 on, changed the filmic spectacle in the whole world. In less than half a decade, production and exhibition processes had to be modified in order to produce and present an audiovisual product which, after all, still had many similarities with the previously standardized silent movie. This transition, which happens in a period also marked by economic and political events of great importance, has developed differently in the countries of the distinct continents. This project aims to investigate how this process of technological change occurred in Brazil, a movie market supplied almost entirely by films of U.S. production.From the information researched in newspapers, magazines, archives and the analysis of the existing films themselves, Brazilian and (some) foreigners, remaining from the period, the project proposes to establish a framework of the exhibition market changes due to the need to equip to sound technology, the critical and, as far as possible, public reception to sound films, at first as a novelty and then as the only option offered in the main exhibition centers of the country; the relations between Brazilian production, the new technology, and the first law enacted by the federal government involving different aspects of film activity (censorship, education, customs fees and the obligatory exhibition of national short films). Some approaches will also be attempted with selected Latin America countries. (AU)