page_title: Cinema of Brazil
section_title: Early days
hierarchical_section_title: Cinema of Brazil / History / Early days
caption_attribution_description: Português: Carmen Miranda em cena do filme Alô, Alô Carnaval (1936)
context_page_description: Brazilian cinema was introduced early in the 20th century but took some time to consolidate itself as a popular form of entertainment. The film industry of Brazil has gone through periods of ups and downs, a reflection of its dependency on state funding and incentives.
context_section_description: A couple of months after the Lumière brothers' invention, a film exhibition was held in Rio de Janeiro. As early as 1898, the Italian Affonso Segreto supposedly filmed the Guanabara Bay from the ship Brésil on a return journey from Europe, though some researchers question the veracity of this event as no copy of the film remains. He would go on to make documentaries with his brother Paschoal Segreto. From the early beginning of the 20th century, as early as 1900 to the year of 1912, Brazilian films had made a major impact on the internal market, as they produced over an annual production of one-hundred films. It is the year of 1908, also coined Brazil's "golden age" of Cinema, that the country saw its first widely popular film. The film was by Antonio Leal, a reconstruction film of The Great Train Robbery, by Edwin S. Porter, titled Os Estranguladores. An ad of a May 1987 issue of Gazeta de Petrópolis, as shown in 1995 by Jorge Vittorio Capellaro and Paulo Roberto Ferreira, was introduced as the new "birth certificate" of Brazilian cinema, as three short films were advertised: Chegada do Trem em Petrópolis, Bailado de Crenças no Colégio de Andarahy and Ponto Terminal da Linha dos Bondes de Botafogo, Vendo-se os Passageiros Subir e Descer.
  During this "belle-epoque" of Brazilian cinema, when black and white silent films were less costly to produce, most work resulted from the effort of passionate individuals willing to take on the task themselves rather than commercial enterprises. Neither is given much attention by the state, with legislation for the sector being practically non-existent. Film theaters only become larger in number in Rio and São Paulo late in the following decade, as power supply becomes more reliable. Foreign films as well as short films documenting local events were most common. Some of the first fictional work filmed in the country were the so-called "posed" films, reconstitutions of crimes that had recently made the press headlines. The first success of this genre is Francisco Marzullo's Os Estranguladores (1908). "Sung" films were also popular. The actors would hide behind the screen and dub themselves singing during projection. During the 1920s film production flourished throughout several regions of the country: Recife, Campinas, Cataguases, Juiz de Fora and Guaranésia.
  Also in the early 20th century of Brazilian cinema, there was a major lack of Black presence in films that were being made. Brazilian and American films are common in this aspect, as both countries had endured similar types of European colonization, and how the colored were not given any time or recognition on film. Many of the early films being produced in Brazil were also made by Italian Americans, with respect to the likes of Affonso Segreto. Another way Brazil and America had similar aspects in their films is the idea of "blackface" in America, and the "redface" in Brazil. The indigenous culture of Brazil was shamed as the African Americans were in the country of America, and both were used to convey the identities in films by people who were not of such color. 
  At the end of World War One, silent Brazilian cinema moved to the growing expansion of women and their social class, mainly the middle, and shows their modernization and diversification. Hollywood influenced the idea of women becoming more seductive in Brazilian cinema as well with new types of hairstyles, smoking cigarettes, and looking “exotic”, in terms of appearance.
  
  Hollywood films were also extremely popular during this time, accounting for as much as 85 percent of film material being exhibited on Brazilian screens in 1928. That year, an estimated 16,464,000 linear feet of film was exported to Brazil, making it Hollywood's third largest foreign market. European films, mostly from Germany and France, were also exhibited with relative frequency. Fan magazines like Cinearte and A Scena Muda were published during this time, featuring both domestic and Hollywood films and stars.
caption: Carmen Miranda in Alô, Alô Carnaval (1936). The Brazilian actress gained visibility overseas.
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