O fim do sem fim / The End of the Endless
Directed by: Lucas Bambozzi, Beto Magalhães, Cao Guimarães
Edited by: Lucas Bambozzi, Beto Magalhães, Cao Guimarães
Production Direction: Beto Magalhães
Date: 2002
Runtime: 92’
Country: Brazil
Language: Portuguese (English subtitles)
Availability in the UK: Queen Mary, University of London, Library
O fim do sem fim is a documentary about the imminent disappearance of
professions throughout Brazil. It contains interviews with various professionals
and workers in the most diverse trades and crafts from all over the country. It
was shot in the regions of Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo,
Bahia, Alagoas, Sergipe, Pernambuco, Paraíba and Ceará. It includes testimonies
from a bell man, a shoe-shiner, a bar philosopher, street photographers, a miner
who seeks gold and diamonds, a midwife, a prophet, a cordel (traditional and
popular form of literature printed in loose sheets) poet, a railway man, a watch
maker, a lift boy, a glass maker, lighthouse keeper, a cinema usher, a kerosene
lamp maker, a lighter fixer, a cock maestro, a peddler promoter, etc.
Most of the interviewees talk passionately about how their jobs represent their
existence. They have been doing them for most of their lives. So, the
disappearance of these jobs does not only mean the end of their means of
making a living, but more importantly, the end of a meaningful existence. Life
and work are closely linked in these old and now useless professions. The
documentary thus shows the negative and even oppressive consequences of
modernisation.
Real characters are presented on location.
RELATED INFORMATION
Other documentaries by Cao Guimarães include:
Da janela do meu quarto (2004)
A alma do osso / The Soul of the Bone (2004)
Rua de mão dupla / Two Way Street (2004)
Short films and video installations by Cao Guimarães include:
Volta ao mundo em algunas páginas (2002)
Nanofania (2003)
Hipnosis (2001)
Sopro (2000)
Histórias do não ver (2001)
World/World (2001)
Inventário de Raivinhas (2002)
Between - Inventário de Pequenas Mortes (1999)
The Eye Land (1999)
Otto, eu sou un outro (1998)
Other documentaries by Lucas Bambozzi include:
Eu não posso imaginar (1999)
Oiapoque-L'Oyapock (1998)
Otto - eu sou o Outro (1998)
A cidade e seus fluxos (1996)
Cidade sem janelas (1994)
Love Stories (1992)
Publications on Cao Guimarães include:
Cannes Film Festival Catalogue. V Supp. nº 37th, 12 May 2005, p. 61. [on Da
janela de meu cuarto]
Annotated by Guillermo Olivera
Postdoctoral Research Assistant, 2005-06
AHRC Project Brazilian and Argentine Documentary Film-Making
Project Director: Else R P Vieira
Department of Hispanic Studies, Queen Mary, University of London
June 2006