Audiovisual in the Ministry of Culture under Gilberto Gil

Two macro-branches have been an agenda for the Brazilian audiovisual: First, to professionalize production, creating an industry and providing continuity to the craft—something that was achieved by the investment on the Brazil Film Agency [ANCINE, in the Portuguese acronym].

Second, the fostering of the audiovisual’s language and artistic expression, which was the groundwork carried out by the Audiovisual Secretary [SAv, in the Portuguese acronym]. Both branches had converged towards the same spot:

The decentralization of both the agenda of Culture and its resource allocation, something that Gil had instilled ever since his first work day. Something that was also described on his inauguration speech, which was a sort of manifesto of his term:

“It is not up to the State to create culture, but, instead, to create universal access conditions to the symbolic goods. It is not up to the State to create culture, but, instead, to provide the needed requirements for the creation and production of cultural goods, be it tangible or intangible goods.”

It was the “anthropological do-in” he had pictured in his address and which should activate the “vital points, although momentarily despised or asleep, from the cultural body of the country.”
In the picture, José de Alencar and Lula, then-vice president and president, in an event of audiovisual with Gil, in 2006.

Still applying the do-in metaphor, Gil chose very representative branches of the cinema and the audiovisual to be activated. He started with the democratization of access, in its two means:

First, funding able to make republican the non-intermediated use of public funding through public announcements or laws, being such rules compliant with the geographic dispersion and different formats, so that there would be more audiovisual producers across Brazil, and not only in the Rio-São Paulo area.

The second mean would be get to a broader audience, both in quantity and diversity, increasing the exhibitor’s base through specific policies to the area.

Thus, there were actions such as the investment in the policy of creation and maintenance of festivals: the creation of the defunct Programadora Brasil, to distribute works to the non-commercial circuit, and the More Cine Culture program.

Thus, at the beginning and not having yet fine-tuned adjustments that, later on, would requalify this policy, Gilberto Gil changed in his term the rules for sponsorship by state-owned companies, spreading the money among more projects and more states.

As a result, he was called out on it for directors and producers of the Brazilian cinema. Gil navigated the crisis with the magnificent calmness of those who know what they are doing and, actually, had wanted this exactly outcome: a qualified debate over the core issues of culture.

Once some vital points of the Brazilian body were awaken, the minister went on with his crusade. The next branch to be activated would be the professionalization of audiovisual actors, through a friendlier relationship with the market.

Instead of calling the shots, as it used to be in the neoliberal environment of the previous governments, the market would then be regulated, complying to laws in line with the presence of the State in the fostering to the industry and the own nature of the audiovisual business.

Juca Ferreira, former executive secretary at Gil’s office, in addition to being former minister of Culture from 2008 to 2011, states that, with the mix of new legislation and establishment of CONDECINE, the ever-present financial issue of the Brazilian cinema had been solved.

The tax, besides being responsible for 80% of the budget of the Sectorial Fund for Audiovisual, had created a convergence environment for the TV channels and the creation of Brazilian content.

This has been a long waited goal of the film industry ever since television had redefined the concept of national unity, in the 1950s.

Another dormant point in the body of Brazilian audiovisual was preservation and memory, which Gilberto Gil even enclosed as part of the heritage policy he forged in his ministry, through the incentive to the listing of intangible goods and programs such as Monumenta Brazil.

The novelty in the understanding inaugurated by Gil is a sharp view over the cultural grounds of the past as a requirement to reach future in a more conscientious and identity way.

In addition to the investments in the revitalization of Cinemateca, there was also a concern with the restoration, preservation, and afterwards screening of movies dated from the silent cinema, Cinema Novo, and Cinema Marginal, without leaving commercial productions aside.

Further branches of said policy are the modernization and strengthen of the Audiovisual Technical Centers [CTAVs, in the Portuguese acronym], which would help to regionalize the preservation of cinematographic heritage.

The last point to be activated by the public policies implanted by Gilberto Gil was the workforce training, kicking off a boom of film schools all over the country, both vocational and undergrad schools.

It was part of the guidelines to strengthen the ends of the audiovisual mix, given that fostering, research and technical training are evidences of the market’s health. The market tends to feed itself back and, thus, fulfill the demand created with the upturn in the sector, having more qualified job openings.

Despite fostering as main policy the decentralization of resources and agenda, Gilberto Gil had promoted a decentralization of governance.

He had delegated to his office members the tasks they were in charge for and made them all work autonomously, yet orchestrated with the concept of his policies and priorities of the ministry.

Further than being a managerial style, this act denotes the generosity and the wisdom so peculiar to human beings, upon which Gilberto Gil had always based his life.

Under the understanding that “audiovisual is not cinema only,” a quote he professed in the first days of his term, Gilberto Gil reflected such thinking into actions as the implementation of Revelando os Brasis Program.

The program put a camera in the hands and an idea in the minds of people at the minimum age of 18 years old, with no previous experience, but who had a story to be told in cities up to 20,000 inhabitants.

There was also the implementation of DOCTV, created in 2003 and designed to the production of documentaries by independent directors, to be aired in the public channels of the country, which left a legacy, between 2003 and 2006, of 115 documentaries, generating 3.080 hours of tapes.

Orlando Senna decided to step out of the Secretary to accept the general-direction of newly-created TV Brasil and was replaced with documentarist and cinema researcher Silvio[CF1] Da-Rin, who remained in the chair until 2010.

The sector is a flagship of national development—for every R$ 1 invested into it, there is a return of R$ 2.60 in taxes. The industry have grown at a rate of 7% yearly from 2013 to 2020. A growth of economical proportions compared to the growth of Chinese economy.

The positive effect of the industry in national economy also is perceived in its power of creating direct and indirect jobs.

The research The Economic Impact of Brazil’s Audiovisual Industry, launched in 2017 by Motion Pictures Association – Latin America, had indicated that industry employed, direct and indirectly, over 495,000 people in the country.