Eduardo Coutinho's biography

The documentary maker, Eduardo Coutinho, has enjoyed an extraordinary career in the Brazilian film industry. He was born in San Pablo, Brazil in 1933. He is a contemporary of many Cinema Novo filmmakers, friend and colleague of several of them, but he only became a director at the beginning of the 1980’s, almost at the age of fifty, in a context entirely different to that of Brazil in the 1960’s.

He also studied law, theatre and journalism, in which he worked for many years. He is the author of articles on the Brazilian film industry published in newspapers and magazines. His first contact with the film world was at a seminar in 1954, but from then until 1957 he was the editor of Visão magazine and later decided to take up film studies at the prestigious Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies (IDHEC) in Paris. He worked on the script or in the production of major films directed by Leon Hirzsman (A Falecida, Garota de Ipanema), Eduardo Escorel (Lição de Amor), Bruno Barreto (Dona Flor and her Two Husbands) and Zelito Viana (Os Condenados).

In 1975, Coutinho joined the Globo Repórter team, where he remained for nine years, and, according to its director, it was an important learning curve that convinced him to move into documentary films. In spite of censorship, the team (made up of Paulo Gil Soares, João Batista de Andrade, Jorge Bodansky and Oswaldo Caldeira, among others) managed to go in depth into a number of topics. Coutinho’s documentaries from this period include Seis Dias em Ouricuri (on the drought and the hard labour in the outback), O Pistoleiro de Serra Talhada (on banditry in the north-east), O Imperador do Sertão (on Colonel Teodorico Bezerra) and O Menino de Brodósqui (on the painter, Cándido Portinari).

Filmography (documentary for television, cinema and video)

• As Canções (Las canciones), (2011)
• Um dia na vida (Un día en la vida), inacabado, (2010)
• Moscou (Moscú), (2009)
• Jogo de Cena (Juego de escena), (2007)
• O Fim e o Princípio (El fin y el principio), (2005)
• Peões (Peones), (2004)
• Edifício Master (Edificio Master), (2002)
• Babilônia 2000 (Babilonia 2000), (2001)
• Santo Forte, (1999)
• Mulheres no Front (Mujeres en el frente) (1996)
• Seis Histórias (Seis historias) (1995)
• Os Romeiros do Padre Cícero (Las romerías del Padre Cícero) (1994)
• A Lei e a Vida (La ley y la vida) (1992)
• Boca de Lixo (Vertedero) (1992)
• O Fio da Memória (El hilo de la memoria) (1991)
• O Jogo da Dívida (El juego de la deuda) (1990)
• Volta Redonda - Memorial da Greve (Volta Redonda - Memorial de la huelga) (1989)
• Santa Marta - Duas Semanas no Morro (Santa Marta – Dos semanas en el cerro) (1987)
• Cabra Marcado para Morrer (Cabra, marcado para morir) (1964-84)
• Portinari, o Menino de Brodósqui (Portinari, el niño de Brodósqui) (1980)
• Exu, uma Tragédia Sertaneja (Exu, una tragedia certeneja) (1979)
• Theodorico, Imperador do Sertâo (Theodorico, emperador del sertón) (1978)
• O Pistoleiro de Serra Talhada (El pistolero de Serra Talhada) (1977)
• Seis dias de Ouricuri (Seis días de Ouricuri) (1976)