""THE LAND OF SÃO SARUÊ" WAS RESTORED..." "BY THE BRAZILIAN CINEMA RESEARCHERS' CENTER..." "THANKS TO THE FINANCIAL SUPPORT..." "OF PETROBRAS DISTRIBUIDORA..." "WITH THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE'S INCENTIVE..." "THROUGH THE ROUANET ACT." ""THE LAND OF SÃO SARUÊ"..." "ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT Brazilian DOCUMENTARIES..." "WAS PRODUCED IN 1970." "IT WAS BANNED BY CENSORSHIP UNTIL 1979..." "WHEN IT WAS SELECTED FOR THE BRASÍLIA FESTIVAL..." "AND WON THE JURY PRIZE." "THE FILM, NOW RESTORED, WAS SHOT IN 16MM..." "AND THEN COPIED ONTO 35MM." "THE 16MM ORIGINAL HAS DISAPPEARED." "THE RESTORATION WAS MADE..." "USING THE EXTANT 35MM INTERNEGATIVE." "THE TREATMENT GIVEN TO THE ORIGINAL SOUND GENERATED..." "A NEW RE-EQUALIZED AND REMIXED SOUND NEGATIVE." "WITHIN THE CONSTRAINTS OF AN OPTICAL RESTORATION..." "THE RESTORERS TRIED TO ELIMINATE IMPERFECTIONS..." "CAUSED BY IMPROPER HANDLING AND STORAGE." "DUE TO THE POOR CONDITIONS OF THE ORIGINAL MATERIAL..." "SOME SCENES COULDN'T BE TOTALLY RESTORED." "THIS OPTICAL RESTORATION WILL ENABLE..." "SUCH DEFECTS TO BE MINIMIZED..." "THROUGH DIGITALl TREATMENT IN THE FUTURE." "RESTORATION WAS MADE..." "FROM MARCH 20O3 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 20O4..." "BY FRANCISCO SÉRGIO MOREIRA, UNDER THE SUPERVISION..." "OF THE Original DIRECTOR, VLADIMIR CARVALHO..." "WITH MYRNA BRANDÃO AND CARLOS AUGUSTO BRANDÃO..." "FROM THE BRAZILIAN CINEMA RESEARCHERS' CENTER." "FILMMAKER WALTER CARVALHO..." "THE ORIGINAL ASSISTANT DIRECTOR..." "CONTRIBUTED ON LIGHT TIMING.." "AND FINAL EVALUATION OF SOUND AND IMAGE." ""THE LAND OF SÃO SARUÊ"" "THIS FILM IS DEDICATED TO THE HUMBLE PEASANTS..." "COWBOYS, CATTLE-RUNNERS, GUITAR PLAYERS AND BEGGARS..." "WHO OFTEN INTERRUPTED THEIR CHORES TO HELP US REALIZE IT." "ON THE PEIXE AND PIRANHAS RIVERS' VALLEYS..." "IN PARAÍBA'S EXTREME WEST, NORTHEAST OF BRAZIL..." "A POPULATION OF ABOUT 50O,OOO SOULS IS SPREAD..." "AMONG AROUND 20 TOWNS..." "OVER AN AREA OF MORE THAN 3,OOO SQUARE MILES." "RICH AND POOR ALIKE..." "THEY'RE ALL DESCENDED FROM PORTUGUESE SETTLERS..." "WHO ARRIVED IN THE 17TH CENTURY, AND NATIVES WHO..." "DURING THE CONQUEST, FORMED THE CARIRI CONFEDERATION..." "AND WERE DECIMATED BY THE BANDEIRANTES..." "LOSING THEIR LANDS..." "TRANSFORMED IN "DATAS" AND "SESMARIAS"." "CATTLE-RAISING AND THE ROUGH TOIL ON THE LAND..." "LENT TO THESE VALLEYS CULTURAL TRAITS..." "EQUAL TO THOSE OBSERVED OVER THE WHOLE SERTÃO." "SADLY, HOWEVER, HERE A MINORITY OWNS AS WELL..." "THE LAND AND THE GOODS HUMAN EFFORT BRINGS FROM IT." "THE RESULT IS INJUSTICE AND HUMILIATION." "THEREFORE, ANY SIMILARITY WITH OTHER SERTÕES' STORIES..." "IS NOT MERE COINCIDENCE, BUT REALLY A SIMILARITY." "In the beginning, a pebbly ground... the desert, the branches." "Between us, the free birds... the rest, the sun would claim." "The rare grinding stone of the wind ground the muddy waters." "Loneliness was sustenance, and birds always crossed the sky." "The wind sometimes took the open plains beyond... sad unjustified memories, of whom, nobody knew." "Sometimes I fly on the acauãs' and inhambu's wings... over the absence of houses among blue saws." "In the beginning, It was who I am." "I've been, like always, what I was." "The wind, same as always, refers to my red dust." "A huge cactus mummy, thus I rarefied my skin:" "I didn't ply either to the touch of the creatures living inside me... onto the wounds that sometimes the sun invents... spewing fire on the rare muddy-watered levees." "In the beginning, It was silence when dawn was upon the land... and between us, the free birds." "The rest, the sun would claim." "Before, spear points drew crosses in the air... around the bonfire, the dance;" "dancing were the local kings." "Deep in the wild woods, among the concriz's cry... which sang hallelujahs to the realm I've always wished... what's ended knows about, or if it doesn't, it would... the men sent over here by a man named Albergaria... some upriver in Paraíba, others wading through Piancó... the Àvilas, Oliveiras, Domingos Jorge do Icós... or Domingos Jorge Velho, whose hardened heels... stepped, on past Sundays, over Palmares Mount." "Like an ox after the other, the men also go... planting pricks and splinters in their hardened palms." "Within the woods, the brave natives' cries:" "they are the only lords of these forgotten sertões." "But not only migrating birds fly above us:" "surely someday these things will be back in their hands." "In the coarse hands of the kings, another world is in construction:" "an hour, a day, a month, and houses rise from the ground." "Stone upon stone, bricks in the air, scaffoldings made of local timber... and the copious sweat incessantly pouring from their pores." "Stone upon stone, the porch, the beam... what a beautiful house, what a palace." "Brick upon brick in a singular mode... the mortar, the plaster, and a distant whitewash." "With timber and stone, construction workers are also farmers." "It was livestock first, just that, just livestock all the time... but is that any livelihood or just an effort of will?" "Stone upon stone, time passes... stone, simply stone... including that one: the tombstone." "Raison-d'être that held settlers in place... when they crossed the São Francisco River more than 200 years ago... coming from Bahia to Piauí... cattle farming spread over the Peixe and Piranhas Rivers' valleys... where the seasonal presence of water modifies the caatinga's landscape... offering good pastures to herds." "Tended by a small workforce... of cowboys and cattle-runners working for wealthy land owners... cattle farming was always a very lucrative activity." "The cattle was marketed in the seaside cities... where their meat was sold and their hides were processed into leather." "Born and raised in the atmosphere of this relationship with animals... these people see cattle as a playful reason for relaxation... and the painstaking toil is often transfigured... into leisure and entertainment, in a peculiar inversion." "The impact of inclement droughts, occurring at least every 10 years... is catastrophic for cattle." "That's why the sertões' livestock has grown and been decimated... in cycles, ever since the days of colonization." "Loyal to Portuguese traditions and to the atavic adoration of the ox... the seahorse game, as it is called, has seen its glory by Peixe River." "Now only a reenacting effort can bring that glory back." "The game was gone little by little, prey to an irreversible decadence." "The huge Acaouã Farm, more than two centuries old... gained notoriety when, at the time of the 1817 Revolution... was turned into a sertão outpost by the insurrected men of the cloth." "Father Correia de Sá was its owner at the time." "From the farm chapel, the silence and loneliness... are devoured by some soul in this faraway sertão." "Water and wine are gone." "There's not even bread to be found." "The wasteland celebrates by itself its own celebration." "The organ still vibrates with its last hallelujah." "The choir singers are long gone, only the choir stage is left." "Dry church, dry life... dry in so many ways... this wringing drought brings whining sounds from the wood... of the few chairs left in this Acaouã temple." "Could they be the lost souls of unbaptized dead?" "Why doesn't this bell toll, why has it been silent so long?" "Could the pilgrim know?" "Could Father Sá know?" "Could Joaquim do Amor Divino or Friar Caneca know?" "Joaquim do Amor Divino has been here as well." "Has the crown changed color?" "If it hasn't, it will." "Freedom wanders aimlessly in Father Sá's dreams!" "Acaouã's colonial environment still resonates with the memory... of the wealth brought by a long gone cattle farming bonanza... when the Peixe River area wasn't so populated." "Today, minding other businesses, its owners live in the capital." "Under the clear sun rays of the morning light... an old man strolls in front of Acaouã Farm." "She wore an embroidered dress and had pomegranate cheeks." "The farm was a feast to the eyes, it was a poem, Acaouã." "Maybe she danced the polka by lantern light... maybe she sang nursery rhymes at her ball." "Standing still in their portraits hung from Baroque walls... ladies decorated by bonnets, comforters and caps." "Below them, wicker chairs, arks made of Brazilian wood... and on the walls, the sourness of this land's serious men." "Families multiplied and time devoured their sweet naïveté... fact upon fact: the War of Paraguay is this general's solemn portrait... after that, the noisy arrival of the train... the opening of roads... the arrival of the first Model T's... causing commotion and photo opportunities for posterity... the brutal day-to-day of cangaço... the slow building of the town's church..." "Nighttime in the old house." "An old man watches his goats... remembering songs from a waltzing, moustached distant past... when a marching band inspired love stories and sonnets... from an old man back to boyhood and an old girl on the square." "His face leaves the frame on a wall and strolls towards the church." "The image faded by time now rises on the Ferris wheel." "Time passes fleetingly, but love never goes away." "That same girl, the same, now picks beans." "Once upon a time, there was a boy from right around here... but back from the past, the girl picks sadness from time." "After cleaning the brush and burning down the woods... after planting crosses and more crosses into oblivion... after Portuguese struggles and Cariri massacres... after being used and abused, my unhappy land... gives back all these white, soft, chalk-colored feathers." "The picker who picks them knows, even from the root... exactly how whiter or faded will the sunlight render them." "He knows that if he doesn't care for them as he should... the new sprouts' leaves will become food for birds." "The picker who picks them, glued to the ground... may know how he was picked for such a sorry task." "Hours pass, and sometimes, with the passing hours, the sun heats up... and, as dozens of hours go by, also go by days and months." "Over there, the sheep, with their bells and their wool... and couples of birds pecking at pebbles on the ground." "Since peasants are contractually bound to plant, grow and harvest... and then give half of the year's harvest to the land owner... they don't have land, time or money left to grow their own food." "This is why, in the dry months, when there isn't anything left... of the little food they manage to store during the harvest... the caboclos who stay behind desperately resort to hunting... the few birds that still haven't migrated, fleeing the drought." "Woman, pluck this bird." "Roast it on the fire." "Give some to the kid." "What's left will be enough for us both." "Tomorrow I'll go out to sell the cotton feathers." "I'll be back by night, with the moon, bringing loaves of sugar." "I put my faith in Our Lady, the Virgin Mary... that our cotton will weigh heavy on the buyer's scales." "I don't mind the long road or the rocks on the ground." "Saint Joseph on the saddle and the heavens will protect me." "Nor I mind the thirst which I will obviously feel." "I trust that, on the wall, when I weigh the cotton..." "Saint Michael will have mercy and really slay the dragon... and he'll bring down here those other scales he holds in his hand... to weigh safely my cotton feathers." "Saint Michael is in that hall, piercing a dragon... and the scales don't tip much for those who work." "But he holds sacred scales with one of his hands... and with the other he pierces the dragon with his spear." "He will bring fairer prices for our feathers... after all, this cotton bale came at a cost... and he knows how hard's the life of those who live in the sertão... a place where flour and beans are very hard to come by... and the only abundant things are rhymes with 'ão'... coarseness, hot sun and memories of a dragon." "In the 19th century, cotton became an important crop in the Northeast." "It was, until then, a native plant... but the increased demand caused by the Civil War in the USA... the precious feather skyrocketed on the international market." "In Souza, for instance, the largest trading place by the Peixe River... there are four large mills, each with a yearly income... of about 70O,OOO cruzeiros, a considerable amount... given the backwards and empirical production methods they use." "Cotton is grown, as we've mentioned, under a 50-50 contract." "The land owner, who usually also owns the mill... has the privilege of credit in banking institutions." "With these resources, the land owners finance the peasants... at an interest rate five times higher than that they pay to the banks." "The peasants, unable to honor their debts... after they've cut in half their harvests, renegotiate them... and are bound by obligation to grow cotton incessantly... never benefiting from the product of their work." "In the cotton war, however, not even the mighty land owners are winners." "A manoeuver cleverly enacted by foreign companies... starting with the rise of cotton as the region's cash crop... soon put an end to the joy of the rich and the poor... of those who grew cotton and those who processed it as well." "Those companies came to the sertão... and initially spiked the price paid to the peasants... who naïvely sold their product to them... rather than to local land owners." "The results were felt quickly:" "unable to beat the high prices paid by the international competition... the best companies in the sertão were made bankrupt and ruined." "They sold the simple machinery with which they faced the cleverness... and the power of the foreign companies." "Soon after that, prices took a violent plunge... hurting also the incautious peasants." "The sertanejos who own the mills left standing after this manoeuver... have become lackeys to the big companies, which reign supreme... even today, when synthetic fibers menace their business." "Mr. Gadelha, is the Gadelha family from Paraíba?" "Yes, the Gadelha family is from Paraíba." "Among others, we're descended from Ceará... because my grandfather, Manuel da Costa Gadelha... came very young to Souza, where he got married and raised a family." "That's how my father, Manuel da Costa Gadelha Filho, was born." "He married Joaquina de Paiva Gadelha... and they had seven children, four boys and three girls." "The firstborn was André Gadelha, former State vice-governor... then came Clotário de Paiva Gadelha and me... both partners in the André Gadelha BrothersCompany." "In 1933... we started our business, renting a cotton machine... from the late, lamented José Avelino de Oliveira, of Pompéia Farm." "In 1936, we bought a mill near Peixe River... which goes around our town, from the late Júlio Marques de Mello." "In 1958, we moved the already obsolete mill... downtown, with new installations." "That's where we got our success, not complete... but at least in our business." "We built another oil plant... and also a candy factory, some movie theaters... and now we're finishing a radio station... a task which, by the way, has been very difficult... because of the petty political manoeuvers involved." "We've been trying to help our town." "We've donated to Souza one of the best maternities in the region... also land for the school, for the National Anti-Drought Department... for the construction of Souza's Regional Hospital... and for the construction of the State's Tax Department... a beautiful building which honors our town." "And a few months ago, I've bought a hotel... the Gadelha Palace Hotel, the third largest in Paraíba... with the sole purpose of helping my region and my community." "Very well." "How do you see the current situation of the peasants... in the sertão region?" "The peasants' situation in the sertão region... is as precarious as possible." "They're not protected by federal or local estates." "The government doesn't help them." "They're not given any credit, so they can develop." "They live under the yoke of private banks... because the credit Banco do Brasil and Banco do Nordeste give them... is insufficient to meet their needs." "They suffer tremendously." "They never get out of debt." "I don't think their problems will be addressed in the foreseeable future." "Mr. Gadelha, you mentioned the peasants' problems." "What experience do you have as a farmer, if you have any?" "Look, pal, I've been everything in my life." "I've been a cowboy, I've been a woodsman... not because I liked it, but because I had to." "I've worked on the land for a long time." "Therefore, I'm experienced and I can say... that there is no salvation for the people of the Northeast..." "I mean, the people in agriculture, without help from the government." "I hope the populism of some politicians will come to an end... so they can get back to reality and get help." "I've been everything in life, as I said." "I've hunted snakes, I mean, I've been a woodsman... as I said, because I had to." "I think that's enough to prove to you... that I've been through every kind of experience in life." "Mr. Gadelha, to wrap it up, I'd like to ask you... what do you aspire in life for the future... since you've made virtually all of your dreams come true... maybe really all of them?" "Indeed, I've made all of my dreams come true." "My only aspiration in life, right now... is to be elected a congressman... and, should I be elected, to help the Northeast... especially Paraíba's sertão, particularly my dear Souza." "Down there, my work." "Look how much I'm worth." "I've hunted many a snake while I worked on the land." "Down there, my work." "Good people who toil all day... and for a saddled animal, God knows how much they pay." "I see roofs, I see clearly above the skyline... the color of the street market, Essolube, Havoline." "The color of the street market, the finest and richest sandals... the shotgun, the skull, yellowed by the sun." "A civilized market:" "look, look how swiftly... hand-made sandals are traded for Japanese flip-flops." "Look: my work, little by little, comes into focus..." "Japanese, Coca-Cola, Essolube, Havoline." "The market is an important weekly gathering for the sertão people... who come, eager to sell, buy or trade... or just to beg, to hear the hawkers... peddling cures for any physical affliction." "In this region, the average life span is not much greater than 30 years... and the men who sell medicines, potions and miracle pills... are very sought after and always draw an enthralled crowd." "What's ended knows about, or if it doesn't, it would... furthermore, it knows the saying of night following day." "And the learned man, the wise man... knows that 35 is the number that changes us from living to late." "Few are those who live to cross that threshold here." "Mechanical steel claws cross the sky in the morning... carrying feathers into space, among woolen clouds." "My name is Charles Foster." "I am a Peace Corps volunteer... a 23-year-old American." "I've been here in Souza for four months... to start a community action program... to show how the population can unite forces... to improve their lives." "I live in the Catarina borough, in close proximity to the people... in order to become a member of their community." "I wake up at 6 AM to get milk... to cut bamboo for a fence I'm building and to pick wood." "After breakfast, I discuss with my neighbors... their problems, worries, hopes and desires." "All together, then... we select a problem that we feel we can solve... and we seek the means to solve it." "The sertão is not the Brazil you see in postcards... like Copacabana, São Paulo or Salvador... but still retains the simple beauty of town squares... old churches and marketplaces." "The sertanejos, with their slow and patient struggle... to create a life free from pain and worry... are good neighbors and colleagues." "I have other American friends in this region." "This is John, from California." "He's here to pay a visit... and compare notes about our experience in Brazil." "NORTHEAST PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEERS..." "PROTEST AGAINST VIETNAM DRAFT" "Charles Foster, why do you think Brazil is so terribly backwards?" "I cannot answer that question." "And what do you think about the war in Vietnam?" "I cannot answer that." "I'm not informed enough about the war... going on in Vietnam now." "ANGERED BY THE DRAFT OF A COLLEAGUE..." "THE PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEERS SENT PROTEST LETTERS..." "TO PRESIDENT JOHNSON, VICE-PRESIDENT HUMPHREY..." "AND THEIR GENERAL DIRECTOR IN WASHINGTON." "LOCAL GENERAL DIRECTOR MR. CHARLES BOSLEY..." "THOUGHT IT WAS NATURAL..." ""BECAUSE IN MY COUNTRY THE YOUNG ARE ALLOWED TO SPEAK..." "AND NEWSPAPERS PUBLISH THEIR ANTI-WAR PROTESTS."" "REED, A VOLUNTEER, GOT DRAFTED BY ARIZONA..." "BECAUSE HE'S UNDER 27." "In 1940, while the world turned Its eyes to the calamity... of the war in Europe, in a small Piancó property... a humble peasant found gold while he was working the land." "Interviews with pioneers from that time." "Even today... there's a lot of gold under our feet, we step on a fortune... and we don't know where it is." "Nor can we explore it... because you can only explore a mine, nowadays... if the government controls the lands where the ore is... and gives the warranty of due payment to the land owner." "Or they could force the land owners to explore it." "We need our wealth." "The mine was just getting organized... it had lighting... it had a compressor to dig... it had electric pumps, it had a grinder... a duster... we were equipping the mine... when this issue came up and everything halted." "Everything was abandoned, the plant, the buildings... streets as long as our whole town today." "Everything was abandoned." "Now it's just pasture for cattle." "There was a market, the kiosks were open all night." "It was very frantic." "There were a lot of shops, hardware stores... warehouses, everything." "It was all very well organized." "And I gave away lots of presents." "I gave a bunch of equipment to one of my first colleagues... in the ore research..." "I gave him the equipment... and he sold it to buy... a car... then he swindled a girl, married her and took her money." "There was money there!" "Custódio himself... the mine manager, used to smoke a pipe... and he'd cut the tobacco with his tobacco cutter... and then, to light the pipe, he'd take a 50O cruzeiros bill... strike a match and burn the bill to light his pipe." "We were ridiculously wealthy." "However, we need a public survey... because I've located gold mines which my book described... and I can't visit them because the land owners won't let me." "Right here in Piancó there's a farm called Angico... which was called, in my book..." ""Paraíba's goldmine"." "In Ceará, I've traveled 62 leagues outside Fortaleza... looking for a mine I'd read about in my book." " Who wrote that book?" " I don't know, it's very old." "I mean, I don't have it anymore." "A friend of mine borrowed it." "Then he went to Santa Luzia, lent it to someone and died, so I lost it." "But that book said, "There's gold in Ceará... on the foothills of Ibiapava, near a property"." "I went there, without any help, to survey it." "I was crazy about the ores." "There's gold on the foothills of Imarés, in Ceará, as well." "I found it there." "With the gold, I bought five buildings in Patos... two farms, cattle, I built levees, fields..." "I bought sheep, everything." "But bad luck got the better of me." "My wife got sick, and I couldn't treat her." "So I came here." "I opened a store, got robbed, nothing was left... and now I get my livelihood from my wife... who found a job here with Dr. Pedro Gondin and Rui Carneiro." "She works with public health and gets a stipend... from the Odontology School." "In the sertão, other people got rich from my craziness." "When I began to survey the land, people called me crazy... and told me to stop searching, there was nothing there." "When I found my first mine and came back to Patos with 60g of gold... then everyone wanted me to teach them how to do it." "Here in the Northeast, we live plagued by starvation and drought... with so much wealth lost under the soles of our feet." "In the 77 drought..." "now, listen to this." "When I found the first mine, exploring it, I found... the grave of a man who starved to death in the 77 drought... and was buried in the gold." "He's there." "That goes to show how crass are the ideas of our people... of our country, which is so wealthy." " And we live like this." " How old are you?" "I'm 75 years old." "I'll turn 75 on September 23." " When'd you start looking for ore?" " I started looking for ore in 39." " Did you start with gold or...?" "I started... there were several kinds of ores... but my ideal was to find gold." "I'm José Inocêncio." "I came from Itaperoá to the São Vicente mine." "When I got there, I wanted to dig for gold, but I couldn't." " Why?" " Because my health was poor... and the work was too hard." "Only those who could work would work." "So I began selling bread in the goldmine to survive." "I saw a lot of wealth." "A lot of wealth and a lot of gold." " I saw the mine manager..." " Who was the mine manager?" " Mr. Custódio." " Have you ever heard of Vicente Lau?" "Yes, sir." "Vicente Lau was the one who found the ore." "I wasn't there." "He was building a fence, I was told." "He was digging a hole when he found a fragment of gold." "He sifted the dirt and saw the material." "He'd already worked at another mine and he recognized it as gold." "So he went and told this to old man Manuel de Oliveira... and said he wanted to work there." "The old man saw it was true... and managed to work there." "The first box was given to old man Antônio Luís." "It was the first box." "From then on... they put a very large quantity of boxes there." " But who discovered the mine?" " It was Vicente Lau." " Where's he at now?" " Now he's in the grave." "He died very young and disgraced in Piancó." " Did he die poor?" " He did." "He did." " Really penniless?" " Really." "What else can I tell you?" "Mr. Custódio was... the bigwig at the mine." "He had employees even to rock his hammock." "Countless times I've seen him light his cigar... with a 50O cruzeiros bill." "But people say he died in disgrace." " It was all gold money?" " All gold money." "Zé Aragão went as far as putting a gold fang on a goat." "He..." "Not Zé Aragão." "Antônio Militão." " He also died last year." " Rich?" "Rich, but not there." "He moved to another State... to Pernambuco or Alagoas." "That's what I can tell you about the ore." "Then more people came." "The town was all lit up, beautiful." "I've seen a lot of people coming here." "There were six radio stations... six bakeries and countless shops." " What kind of shops?" " The kind that did all sort of trade." "Big trading houses." "Now... all that came tumbling down." "I've seen a lot of wealth, and now we are all very poor." "People are going away to cool down." "They're all on their way." "To be able to cool down." " Why don't they look for gold?" " Because they're not allowed to." "They haven't got permits to work." "That's the point." "All the gold in Itajubatiba... will go to Our Lord, because He's the one who put it there." "No living soul will lay a hand on it." "We're not allowed to work... and we live on top of this wealth, but we're starving to death." "We'll all die." "Ever since these issues came up... it all got complicated." "Only one thing's for sure: the mine is gone." "150 people have gone away already." "Only women and children who can't fend for themselves are left." "And old people." "Only them." "How was it in 1959-1960?" "Dr. Massillon worked out a contract... with some Americans... giving them a one-year deadline to perform a survey." "If they could find gold, they'd control the mine." "If not, they wouldn't." "Anyway, there was some trouble with the company." "They couldn't find any gold with their survey... so they got tired and left." "After that, everything was shut down." "Now, to make a living, we go to work... one, two miles, even more, away from home... farming other farms, living in a mine, because we're homeless." "And what do you think it should be done with the mine?" "We should ask our government for protection... so we could work to end our poverty... because the mine made possible to gather more than 5,OOO people... from '42 to '45... and nobody ever went hungry." " And this was during wartime." " Yeah, during wartime." " Who built that church?" " Major João Costa." "He built the church and the cemetery in 15 days." "People used to live... in the bushes, under the trees, whole families." "It was a great epidemic." "A great epidemic indeed." "Then he went... and gave strict orders to anyone who couldn't build a shack... to go away, or he'd kill them." "The fever was too much." "When someone died... the police had to force people... to bury them on common ground, because we didn't have a church." "Everything was built by Major João Costa." " And how was the work?" " The work?" "The only works were gold-digging or agriculture." "Agriculture was out of town." "Those who couldn't dig for gold... worked on agriculture out of town." "But since I was a bread maker, I went on selling bread... and then, when the gold rush died down and people went away..." "I began selling it at the market." "The street market was open from 6 AM... to 10 PM." "At 10 PM, the police came and told everyone to get the hell out." "At two in the morning, you could hear the mortars at work... grinding the dirt that came from the mine." "We sifted for gold and sold the dirt to the poor." "They sifted it again and still got their money's worth in gold." "Cars came in from Pernambuco, Ceará, Paraíba, Rio Grande... in great quantities." "And there were two buses." "There were also some old jalopies, the Dindinhas... which circulated daily." "But the town was all lit up... and the parties simply raged." "The red-light district was open day and night." " What?" " The cabarets." "They were open day and night." "There were women from everywhere... in the cabarets." "And they were always full of customers." "The soil of Paraíba has countless minerals in it:" "columbite, bauxite, kaolinite, pyrite, thorium, some radioactivity." "Mayors of several towns and private individuals... make small surveys seeking to one day emancipate their towns." "The popular leaflet 'Trip To São Saruê'... tells about a mythical land full of wealth and plenty." "This image seems to be virtually repeated in these fields... sparkling imagination and sometimes creating permanent delusions." "In Catolé do Rocha, near Rio Grande do Norte's border..." "Chateaubriand Suassuna, from an old, traditional family... nephew of an old governor of Paraíba... one day dreamed there was uranium in his lands... after some geologists visited his farm." "Sickle in hand, visionary as only sertanejos can be... he lives in constant unrest, combing his property for years... using coarse instruments." "He's been visited several times by the press and by scholars... which makes him become more and more resolute in his surveys." "His neighbors, however, think he's a lunatic." "They talked about honey, and it was far away... too far away the mill where it came from." "I've covered many leagues, I've moved forward..." "I've worn down the shoulders of my shirt." "I've occupied a wandering ship and floated, lost among what was mine:" "my work, and the distant scraps... which were denied to me on this hard line." "They talked about the fruit, and it fled, its pulp lost to the world... amidst sun, creek, drought and river." "Is it time for me to stop?" "Not yet." "The land where I sow my seeds is deep... and this delay generates another song." "THE EFFORT OF EVERY MAN" "As the mayor of a town in the sertão..." "I live, along with the people in this area, the drama of underdevelopment." "Towards City Hall converge... all the problems of the population." "Nobody is born, suffers or dies... without the intervention of City Hall." "This may seem... peculiar, but it's just a depiction of reality." "When they're born, they're baptized and registered." "When they get sick, they need medicine." "When they die, they need a coffin to be buried in." "Everything is asked to the mayor." "But this constant asking... does not bespeak of idleness... or aversion to work... like some strict or intolerant people could think." "Rather, it's a portrait of the poverty in this region." "And such poverty is not due to nature... or temper, or even the people's formation." "It is borne out of an accumulation of errors... in the way of exploring the land and creating and distributing wealth." "Many will think that the Northeast's only problem is the drought... and the occasional flood." "But much more serious than the drought and the flood... is the problem of the agricultural structure." "However, we have a penchant, in the sertão... for perceiving only the problem of the climate, which indeed exists:" "the drought, the flood." "And the drought puts people in the streets." "It makes these humble peasants..." "always so considerate... whom no one would initially take... for men full of strength, courage, will to live and grow... it makes these people shed their apparent humility... and reveal their greatness and their strength... looting the street market, pillaging the shops... taking the town by storm, yelling and demanding their rights." "The drought... has lost much of the scare it represented in the past... but the legend lives on." "The 1877 drought, so ancient... is still alive in the memory of the sertanejos." "No one remembers that there weren't any roads or communication then." "There weren't big levees." "That's why there was such panic then." "That still applies today." "The drought is much valued." "Everyone fears it with a terror bordering on panic." "The flood also causes great losses... comparable to those caused by the drought... but the flood isn't feared." "People respect the rain and the flood." "They do not dare show indignation against the flood." "They're condemned to this by the constant fear of the drought... even though the drought shouldn't scare them so much anymore... because of the new economic conditions... the new economic structure of the sertão." "The drought, the burned fields, the cracked land, the beggars... the town invaded by whole families... the anti-drought measures, the work on the road, the low salaries... all of that really exists." "Another thing that exists... is the loss caused by the flood:" "the town under water... the plains flooded, crops destroyed." "Those are the problems that really are worthy... of the government and offices' attention." "I'm only saying they're not the original cause... of the underdevelopment in the Northeast." "They do exist, but they're easily manageable... and, in a certain sense, they are being managed." "And fortunately, the government... as well as the people have understood that... and already look upon the sertão... even though it is subject to this climate... as a land capable of creating a great civilization." "And the people identify themselves in their ability... to overcome these little problems of the climate... to establish a prosperous society... a rich land... where they can all participate." "THE END" ""THE LAND OF SÃO SARUÊ"" "PRODUCED IN 1970 RESTORED IN 20O3l20O4" "CAPTIONS BY VIDEOLAR"