Here's a magnificent short documentary on one of the most important figures of Brazilian cinema, yet his name isn't big enough to a
great deal of audiences and film coinosseurs around the world - myself included up until now. "O Cinegrafista de Rondon" offers a brief
view on cinematographer Luiz Thomaz Reis (1878-1940), a military man turned into filmmaker when the army started out
expeditions on the Amazon forest, all conducted by the famous marshall Cândido Rondon, one of the key figures of studying the Brazilian
natures, their rituals and culture, for many decades in the first half of the 20th century.
Mr. Reis filmed extensive material about Rondon and the indians, pioneering images in Brazilian cinema while many of his army
comrades who were also filmmakers lost plenty of film and works, as they didn't believe in the power of camera and the importance of
creating documentaries for posterity. If a massive bulk of many Brazilian films of the silent era were all lost and gone forever, a few of Reis
images still resist (such as "Rituaes e Festas Bororo" (1916) and "Ao Redor do Brasil" (1932)) and serve its purpose of telling a part of
Brazil's history and its cinematographic memory.
Besides clips from those films, there's a short biography about Reis - narrated by veteran actor Nildo Parente; and Reis cameras kept in a musuem, and what he intended to present and cover with his works. A man truly devoted to cinema - creator of the very first incentive favoring the exhibition of Brazilian shorts on theatres, way before the quotas law from the 1980's - and that passion and devotion end up claiming his
life while covering the collapse of a building. That's the kind of legacy very few have in the history of cinema, with many memorable moments
to share. Jurandyr Passos Noronha's tribute in his honor is amazingly interesting, curious and fascinating in everything. Definitely recommend. 10/10.
