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 A breezy Sunday evening in Manaus' central square and hordes of dinosaurs are rampaging beneath the city's towering yellow and green neoclassical opera house. Hundreds of locals mill around, gazing up at the scaly invaders, as the Amazonas philharmonic orchestra hammers out the theme tune of Jurassic Park.
It's not a scene from a new wave of Brazilian science fiction flicks, but a snapshot of the second edition of the Amazonas Adventure Film Festival, which touched down in Manaus this month. Thousands of Brazilians passed through the Largo São Sebastião during the week-long event to pour over a selection of international and national films - and perhaps also to meet the stars. "I can't remember her name, but she's from overseas, isn't she?" wondered one local teenager, as she waited, clutching a biro and an autograph book, ready to pounce on an unsuspecting Alicia Silverstone, one of the jury members. "She's the one who did As Patricinhas de Beverly Hills (Clueless), right?" she added, as British actor Christopher Ecclestone stepped out into the square. "But I've no idea who that is. Never seen him before. Do you think he'll give me an autograph?" Also amongst the host of stars on parade in Manaus was Roman Polanski, the French film maker, whose film Oliver Twist closed the festival. "The festival is a great thing because it promotes the Amazon," he explained at Manaus' luxurious Tropical Hotel, where the members of he jury enjoyed front row seats over the murky waters of the Rio Negro during the week long festival. "Not enough is being done to protect this area [or] to recognise the destruction," he said. "I came here 14 years ago and have seen the damage done." True to form Polanski spoke of the comparisons between Dickensian London and the capital of Amazonas. "Maybe Manaus [is like London] less than other cities in Brazil. [But] London, like Manaus, was a fast growing metropolis at the time, drawing people in from the provinces who found themselves homeless and without work contrary to their expectations." The festival's Franco-Brazilian organizers do not shy away from their aim to change that. Nominally the Amazonas Adventure Film Festival is about cinema. Eight "adventure"-orientated films fought it out for the top prize whilst documentaries and shorts from Brazil and around the world disputed other prizes. Yet this festival is about more than celluloid and popcorn. The promoters make no secret of their desire to use cinema to boost tourism and help protect the environment. State governor Eduardo Braga, one of the brains behind the festival, says the aim is to lead Manaus back to its "glorious past", without damaging its comparatively preserved surroundings. "Our biggest challenge is to promote development without destroying nature," he said. "For that reason sustainable development models are now our main goals." With a battle currently raging over the resurfacing of the BR-319 that links Manaus and Porto Velho, the dilemma of balancing development and preservation could not be starker for Braga. Neighbouring states, principally Pará, have seen their rainforests ravaged in recent years by illegal loggers and soya and cattle farmers, egged on by the growth of road networks in the state. Many fear a reconstructed BR-319 could precipitate the same kind of destruction in Amazonas. But such concerns were not always at center stage during the glitzy film sessions at Manaus' Amazonas Opera House, a spectacular theatre built at the height of the rubber boom in 1896. In fact, the cinema goers who crammed into the velvet-carpeted theatre each night found themselves transported to all parts of the world: from the killing fields of Rwanda, in Shooting Dogs by British director Michael Caton-Jones, to the snow capped hilltops of Tibet in Dreaming Lhasa, by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonma. But although Shooting Dogs eventually scooped the top award, the film on everybody's lips here was from closer to home. Released this month in cinemas across Brazil, Cinema, Aspirina e Urubus (Cinema, Aspirin and Vultures), the debut film of Brazilian director Marcelo Gomes, recounts the improbable, though partially true story, of Johann, a German immigrant who embarks on a gargantuan journey across the arid Brazilian sertão during World War II, selling a new wonder drug known as 'aspirin'. Johann (played by German actor Peter Kethnath, to whom the northeastern state of Bahia is now home) is no ordinary salesman. Using malandragem (cunning) of which any Brazilian would be proud he uses cinema to sell his wares, scouring the gruelling interior of Paraíba in search of willing customers. And just as Johann was a hit in the villages of the sertão (backlands), so too has the film begun garnering praise the length and breath of Brazil. This week Walter Salles director of Brazil's best-known road movie Central do Brasil (Central Station) lavished praise on the film in the Brazilian press.
And just as Gomes' flick now seems a certain box-office hit in Brazil the festival too promises to be back with a vengeance next year. "I'd like to make a date with you," proposed the state's Culture Minister, Robério Braga at the closing ceremony. "November 2006, Manaus... to experience once again the enchantment of the forest, the most desired place on the planet." Tom Phillips is a British journalist who has been based in Brazil for 3 years. He writes for a number of papers including the Guardian, the Observer, The Melbourne Age and the Sunday Herald. You may visit his blog at http://globalnoticias.blogspot.com or contact him on atphillips@gmail.com.
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