Marcelo Machado
Tropicalia

"Tropicalia" not only refers to one of the early songs by Caetano Veloso but also the title of this beautiful documentary directed by Marcelo Machado in 2012, taking us back to the years of the birth and development of an artistic and musical movement called "tropicalismo," active in Brazil during the 1960s.

During that decade, so rich with cultural and political ferment (the so-called "winds of change"), a large Third World nation like Brazil could not remain fortified in a sort of splendid isolation. As well illustrated and remembered in the film, the then Brazilian military dictatorship established in 1964 tried to implement an isolationist policy, even in the cultural sphere, and in the music sector, there was a prevalence of native styles like samba and bossa nova, beyond which they did not venture.

Moreover, the regime tended to present a general image of carefreeness to conceal the true dimension of the socio-economic problems of that time. To that end, various popular music shows were broadcast on Brazilian TV. It was a known way to distract public opinion, following the classic "panem et circenses," although underlying social tensions were present, and even university students were not so docile, making their voices heard despite police repression after the student Edson Luis was killed at the beginning of the fateful 1968.

It was precisely in the second half of the 1960s that the tropicalist style took its first steps, which in the musical field, emerged for its eclectic approach, revitalizing Brazilian folk with strong doses of Anglo-American rock. Major exponents of this movement like Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Os Mutantes, and Gal Costa (to name a few) brought a breath of fresh air that clashed against both the autarchic traditionalism of the existing regime and the cultural dogmatism of the local far left, which labeled any openness to foreign musical styles as imperialist and pro-American. Their style was truly disruptive, culminating in the song with the unequivocal title "Prohibido prohibir," a declaration of intents too libertarian and hippie for a government so authoritarian that it issued repressive special laws in December 1968. Given this further reactionary turn, inevitably Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil ended up under arrest and, after months of detention, were sent into exile in London in 1969.

Upon their return to Brazil in 1972, the two had not only deepened their knowledge of British rock but had also achieved an international notoriety that could protect them from any subsequent retaliations by the Brazilian military junta. Their musical work would continue up to the present day, influencing the Brazilian music scene, confirming their fundamental role.

With a sharp editing of both black and white and color images, the film conveys the atmosphere of those years marked by both social tensions (still touching are the sequences of student Edson Luis's funeral) and captivating concerts filmed by Brazilian TV. It leads to the final part where Veloso and Gil, watching a filmed performance of theirs from 1972 in the studio, start singing the tune "Back in Bahia." I'm spontaneously led to think of the cathartic power contained in the music, strong enough to defy the wear of time. In short, it must be said and thought that tropicalismo is not dead but lives and fights alongside us.