Set in the raw reality of the sertão, Marília Rocha's film Aboio (2005) is most surprising for its tone, a dreamlike lament. The Super-8 footage and close-up shots —which create abstract visual configurations—, along with the soundtrack keep Aboio from falling neatly into the field of Verism film and set it apart from journalistic reporting. Its style breaks with tradition and established a new framework for Brazilian documentary filmmaking. In addition, it captures the extinct oral practice used by cowherds of singing while driving cattle down paths; by way of this wordless song -with its final phrase of admonition - he communicates with the cattle, sending it out to graze or to the corral, singing what José de Alencar called a "sublime hymn to yearning".
Eduardo Escorel
Editor and Teacher
- It’s All True. International Documentary Film Festival, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro- Best Film (2005)
- MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight (2005)
- Rio de Janeiro International Etnographic Film Festival - Best Film (2005)
- CinePE - Best Soundtrack and Best Sound (2005)
- Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (2006)
- Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal (2006)
- Sec-Sated Award, Minas Gerais - Best Direction and Best Film (2008)
- Visions du Réel: tribute to Marília Rocha (2011)
She is a filmmaker based in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. She made the films Aboio [Cattle Callers] (2005), Acacio (2008), and A falta que me faz [Like Water through Stone] (2010). Her works have been selected and awarded at countless Brazilian and International Film Festivals, having also been screened at museums such as the MoMA (USA), New Museum (USA) and Musée d’ethnographie Neuchâtel (Switzerland). In 2011, the Dockanema festival (Mozambique) held a retrospective of her work and she was honored at Visions du Réel (Switzerland), which dedicated a special show to her films.