Photo by Arthur Sens
A fire has been reported at one of the warehouses of the Brazilian Cinematheque in São Paulo, located in the neighborhood of Vila Leopoldina on the west side of the city. According to local media, the fire was reported today, Thursday, around 6pm local time in the 6,500-square meter warehouse where highly flammable material is stored. Preliminary reports confirm that there were no people inside the building; eleven vehicles were sent by the local Fire Department to fight the outburst of flames.
The headquarters of the cinematheque are located in another part of the city, but the warehouse houses part of its collection of 35mm and 16mm film prints. According to the newspaper Folha de São Paulo, the warehouse only stores copies of the films and not the original rolls. The newspaper also quoted a former staff member of the cinematheque who argued the fire could have started by a short circuit in the air conditioning system.
Created in 1940, the largest film collection in South America had been closed for over a year after its staff was laid off by the reactionary government of President Jaír Bolsonaro. Since then, the neglected organization has been in jeopardy facing all types of setbacks as it fights for its existence and the protection of its valuable collection.
In the last five years, the Cinemateca Brasileira has dealt with two other disasters: a fire in 2015 that destroyed 500 prints, and a flood caused by heavy rains in 2020 that damaged many additional materials in the collection. In October 2020, UNESCO, through its committee for the “Memory of the World” Program for Latin America and the Caribbean, expressed its concern “about the potential damage to the extraordinary heritage of a unique and historical nature preserved by this institution.”
In a recent article published this past May by Frieze titled “As Fires Consume Brazilian Cultural Heritage, Could Cinemateca Brasileira Be Next?,” film journalist Ela Bittencourt forewarned of the potential risk of fire in one of the country’s key cultural institutions which holds an estimated 240,000 reels, due to the “onslaught of funding cuts, closures and employee layoffs.”
More recently, director Kleber Mendonça Filho (Bacurau) used the Cannes opening night press conference, where he participated as a juror in the official competition, to bring visibility to the issue, accusing Bolsonaro’s government of closing down Brazil’s national cinematheque and dismantling its staff. “This is a very clear demonstration of contempt for cinema and for culture,” said Filho.
Durante uma conferência do #Cannes2021, Kleber Mendonça Filho soltou o verbo sobre a negligência do governo brasileiro no combate à Covid e o desmonte da Cinemateca Brasileira.
— TAG Revista (@tag_revista) July 8, 2021
Spike Lee emendou com críticas a vários lideres mundiais. #Cannes pic.twitter.com/MZ2MhTNy8w
