Review by Choice Review
With this volume, Sadlier (emer., Spanish and Portuguese, Indiana Univ.) fills a gap in English-language scholarship on film by providing a clearly organized historical survey of documentary filmmaking in Brazil over the last hundred years. This survey follows a rough chronological order, and the films surveyed are grouped in thematic clusters--witness chapter 4, "Documentary, Dictatorship, and Repression." A wide variety of documentaries are examined, among them films with educational, biographical, or ethnographic orientation. Sadlier explores the aesthetics and themes of the films and also delves into issues of production, distribution, exhibition, and reception. Taken together, the documentaries provide Sadlier with "a way of discussing the larger history of Brazilian society, politics, and culture" (p. 2). This broader goal is admirably accomplished thanks to the author's vast knowledge of the subject matter. She selects several documentaries of marked sociopolitical significance for extended critical commentary, among them Ônibus 174 (2002), a controversial investigation of an infamously violent hostage situation in 2000 on Rio bus #174. Sadlier effectively integrates her research and the findings of such prominent Brazilian film historians and critics as Jean-Claude Bernardet. Sadlier's prose is eminently readable, and the scholarly apparatus is robust. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. --Dennis West, emeritus, University of Idaho
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
