In August 1928, while working on his feature film Sangue mineiro (1930), leading Brazilian filmmaker Humberto Mauro (1897–1983) made a short film on Cataguases, located in the southeastern part of the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. In the 1920s, the city became rich and it also developed into a center of Brazilian modernism as the site of the short-lived but influential art journal Revista Verde. In addition, the city became closely associated with Mauro, as he made several fiction films there.
In a letter, Mauro wrote that he was
going to make a Cataguases movie in two parts in the manner of the Symphony of Berlin… . I’ll just follow that style to show Cataguases inside: its communication lines, factories, constructions, waterworks, services of light, telephone and telegraph, schools, sports, et cetera, et cetera.
Initially, Mauro intended to call it Foxtrot of a City. However, this title was considered frivolous by mayor Lobo Filho, and it was replaced by Symphony of Cataguases, making the reference to Ruttmann’s Berlin more explicit.
Steven Jacobs
further reading
Schvarzman, Sheila, Humberto Mauro e as imagens do Brasil (São Paulo: Editora da Unesp, 2004).
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