The Italian mission: Stories of a generation of Italian film and theatre directors in Brazil (1946–69)

Abstract

The journey to Brazil undertaken by a generation of young Italian directors initiated a phase of artistic renewal in São Paulo during the 1950s. This article reveals the connections between the projects and theatre, television and cinema productions of some of the protagonists of that extraordinary adventure by tracing the power plays that marked the period. As they understood, it was a time when one would believe in the possibility of implementing a modern theatre supported by the state and an art cinema, expected to be adored by a public and which still had to be formed. These goals united a generation and motivated its migration to the other side of the Atlantic. It was a ‘mission’ based on the belief that the arts, especially the performing arts, should be tools for the democratic emancipation of the public and not just occasions for its entertainment. Their tasks, illusions, disappointments and legacies are inscribed in plays and films, which I illustrate in this article.