Beyond Citizen Kane
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| Beyond Citizen Kane | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Simon Hartog |
| Produced by | John Ellis |
| Written by | Simon Hartog |
| Distributed by | Channel 4 |
| Release date(s) | September 1993[1] |
| Running time | 105 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom Brazil |
| Language | English |
Beyond Citizen Kane (1993) is a British documentary film directed by Simon Hartog, produced by John Ellis, and broadcast on Channel 4.
It details the dominant position of the Rede Globo media group in the Brazilian society, discussing the group's influence, power, and political connections[2]. Globo's president and founder Roberto Marinho came in for particular criticism, being compared with fictional newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane, created by Orson Welles for the 1941 film Citizen Kane. According to the documentary, Marinho's media group engages in the same Kane wholesale manipulation of news to influence the public opinion[2].
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[edit] Plot
The documentary tracks Globo's involvement with and support of the military dictatorship, its illegal partnership with the American group Time Warner (at the time Time-Life), Marinho's political maneuverings (which included airing on Jornal Nacional, the network's prime time news program, highlights of a 1989 presidential debate edited in a way as to favor Fernando Collor de Mello) and a controversial deal involving shares of NEC Corporation and government contracts. It also features interviews with noted Brazilian personalities, such as singer-songwriter Chico Buarque, politicians Leonel Brizola and Antonio Carlos Magalhães and the ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
[edit] Dispute with Globo over British rights
The documentary was first shown in September 1993, in the United Kingdom. The programme was delayed for a year as Rede Globo disputed the programme makers' right under British law to use short extracts from Globo programmes without permission for the purposes of "critical comment and review". During this period, Simon Hartog, the director, died after a long illness. The process of editing was taken over by his co-producer, John Ellis. When eventually broadcast, copies were made available at cost by the production company, and many were sent to Brazil by the Brazilian community in Britain.
[edit] Censorship in Brazil
The first public screening of the film was expected to happen at the Rio de Janeiro Modern Art Museum in March 1994. One day before the premiere, the Military Police received an order to fulfill a court warrant requiring the confiscation of movie posters and the copy of the film. The direction of the museum was threatened with a heavy fine in case of disobedience. The Secretary of Culture of Rio de Janeiro, put under pressure, was fired just three days after the incident.[3]
Through the 1990s, the film was illegally screened in Universities and political acts without public notice. In 1995, Globo requested in court the confiscation of copies available at the library of the University of São Paulo, but the claim was overruled. The film was restricted to University groups until the 2000s, with the internet boom in Brazil[2] — currently the 5th country by number of web users and 1st in time spent in internet per month — that made the film widely available.
[edit] Distribution and internet phenomenon
Rede Globo sought to buy the Brazilian rights to the programme, presumably seeking to suppress it. However, Hartog had agreed with various organizations in Brazil that the non-TV rights should be given to them so that the programme could be shown widely by both cultural and political organizations. Globo lost interest in buying the programme when they learned this, and it remains unbroadcast in Brazil. However, many VHS and DVD copies have circulated, and the documentary is available on the internet, via peer-to-peer networks and video sharing websites such as YouTube and Google Video (where it was watched almost 600,000 times). Contrary to popular belief, the movie is legally available in Brazil, though practically impossible to find, mostly buried in libraries and private collections.
On August 20, 2009, the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported that Rede Record bought the broadcasting rights of the documentary from Ellis for less than US$ 20,000. This happened after a series of mutual attacks between Globo and Record because of an investigation conducted by the Public Ministry against Edir Macedo and other high profile members of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. Macedo is the owner of Record since November 9, 1989[4][5]. On February 14, 2011, the newspaper Jornal do Brasil (quoting the network's spokesperson) reported that Rede Record will broadcast the documentary in 2011, on a date yet to be specified.[6]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Entry at the British Film Institute
- ^ a b c Folha Universal. "Crença na impunidade". Arca Universal. (27-09-09).
- ^ "Documentário polêmico sobre a Globo completa dez anos", O Estado de S. Paulo (08-08-03).
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ "Muito além do cidadão Marinho", Jornal do Brasil, 14-02-11
[edit] External links
- (English) BBC: Brazilian media magnate dies
- (English) Critical Literacy: Theories and Practices
- (Portuguese) 2008 interview with John Ellis on Folha Online
- (Portuguese) Observatório da Imprensa - Muito Além do Cidadão Kane
- (Portuguese) Sociólogo francês compara Roberto Marinho a Berlusconi
- (Portuguese) PUC Minas Library Record
- Beyond Citizen Kane at the Internet Movie Database
[edit] Video
- (Portuguese) Download the film (only a few parts are subtitled)
- (Portuguese) Mirror | Torrent (only a few parts are subtitled)
- (Portuguese) Video stream (only a few parts are subtitled)
- (Portuguese) Beyond Citizen Kane - download and streaming (Audio is Portuguese. Few parts have audio in English with Portuguese subtitles)
- (Portuguese) Beyond Citizen Kane (download) at Google Video (only a few parts are subtitled)
- (Portuguese) Beyond Citizen Kane (streaming) at Google Video (only a few parts are subtitled)
