A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Birthplace:
Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Born:
November 22, 1937
Died:
September 15, 1987
Leon Hirszman was a Brazilian filmmaker, one of the main figures of the Brazilian Cinema Novo movement. His first short film, Pedreira de São Diogo, was one of the five segments of Cinco Vezes Favela, an important film for New Cinema released in 1962. His first full-lenght motion picture was an adaptation of playwright Nelson Rodrigues' A Falecida (The Deceased). The film already spoke on a subject dear to Leon: the social alienation of the working class. Working both with documentaries and fictional narratives, among Leon's body of work are the documentaries Nelson Cavaquinho, Megalópolis, Ecologia and Sexta-feira da Paixão, Sábado de aleluia. In 1971, he releases São Bernardo, a work of fiction based off Graciliano Ramos' eponymous book. He was also responsible for films such as Cantos do Trabalho no Campo, Que País É Esse?, Rio, Carnaval da Vida and ABC da Greve. For his 1981 film Eles Não Usam Black Tie (They Don't Wear Black Tie), the 1981 Venice Film Festival gave him three awards (it was also nominated for the Golden Lion). The film was also nominated for the Great Prize Coral Negro on the 3rd Festival Internacional do Novo Cinema Latino-Americano; Great Prize on the Festival dos Três Continentes, and the Espiga de Oro on the Festival Internacional de Vallodolid. At last, it was also nominated for the Air France Prize in 1982. Leon Hirszman had an extremely important role on Brazilian cinema and left behind a great number of articles in which he proposes a number of reflections on the conditions for filmmaking in Brazil, its market and legislation, Embrafilme (then an Federal institution responsible for aiding filmmaking in Brazil), and politic cinema. Leon died from complications of HIV, after a year of treatment. He got the virus from a blood transfusion and left behind three children: Irma, Maria and João Pedro, and his spouse, Cláudia Fares Menhem.
Associate Producer:
1996 Bahia de Todos os Sambas
Director:
1962 Cinco Vezes Favela
1962 Pedreira de São Diogo
1964 Maioria Absoluta
1965 The Deceased
1967 The Girl from Ipanema
1969 América do Sexo
1969 Nelson Cavaquinho
1972 S. Bernardo
1973 Ecologia
1973 Megalopolis
1975 Cantos de Trabalho - Mutirão
1975 Cinema Brasileiro, Mercado Ocupado
1976 Cantos de Trabalho - Cacau
1976 Cantos de Trabalho - Cana de Açúcar
1976 Partido Alto
1981 They Don't Wear Black Tie
1981 Which Country is this?
1987 Imagens do Inconsciente - Em Busca do Espaço Cotidiano
1987 Imagens do Inconsciente: A Barca do Sol
1987 Images of the Unconscious
1987 No Reino das Mães - Adelina Gomes
1990 ABC of a Strike
1996 Bahia de Todos os Sambas
2014 Afterword: Images of the Unconscious
Director of Photography:
1962 Cinco Vezes Favela
1962 Pedreira de São Diogo
1964 Maioria Absoluta
1965 The Deceased
1967 The Girl from Ipanema
1969 América do Sexo
1969 Nelson Cavaquinho
1972 S. Bernardo
1973 Ecologia
1973 Megalopolis
1975 Cantos de Trabalho - Mutirão
1975 Cinema Brasileiro, Mercado Ocupado
1976 Cantos de Trabalho - Cacau
1976 Cantos de Trabalho - Cana de Açúcar
1976 Partido Alto
1981 They Don't Wear Black Tie
1981 Which Country is this?
1987 Imagens do Inconsciente - Em Busca do Espaço Cotidiano
1987 Imagens do Inconsciente: A Barca do Sol
1987 Images of the Unconscious
1987 No Reino das Mães - Adelina Gomes
1990 ABC of a Strike
1996 Bahia de Todos os Sambas
2014 Afterword: Images of the Unconscious
Executive Producer:
1962 Cinco Vezes Favela
1962 Pedreira de São Diogo
1964 Maioria Absoluta
1965 The Deceased
1967 The Girl from Ipanema
1969 América do Sexo
1969 Nelson Cavaquinho
1970 A Vingança dos Doze
1971 Faustão
1972 S. Bernardo
1973 Ecologia
1973 Megalopolis
1975 Cantos de Trabalho - Mutirão
1975 Cinema Brasileiro, Mercado Ocupado
1976 Cantos de Trabalho - Cacau
1976 Cantos de Trabalho - Cana de Açúcar
1976 Partido Alto
1981 They Don't Wear Black Tie
1981 Which Country is this?
1987 Imagens do Inconsciente - Em Busca do Espaço Cotidiano
1987 Imagens do Inconsciente: A Barca do Sol
1987 Images of the Unconscious
1987 No Reino das Mães - Adelina Gomes
1990 ABC of a Strike
1996 Bahia de Todos os Sambas
2014 Afterword: Images of the Unconscious
Producer:
1962 Cinco Vezes Favela
1962 Pedreira de São Diogo
1964 A Seventy-Four Year-Old Fellow
1964 Maioria Absoluta
1965 The Deceased
1967 The Girl from Ipanema
1969 América do Sexo
1969 Nelson Cavaquinho
1970 A Vingança dos Doze
1971 Faustão
1972 S. Bernardo
1973 Ecologia
1973 Megalopolis
1975 Cantos de Trabalho - Mutirão
1975 Cinema Brasileiro, Mercado Ocupado
1976 Cantos de Trabalho - Cacau
1976 Cantos de Trabalho - Cana de Açúcar
1976 Partido Alto
1981 They Don't Wear Black Tie
1981 Which Country is this?
1987 Imagens do Inconsciente - Em Busca do Espaço Cotidiano
1987 Imagens do Inconsciente: A Barca do Sol
1987 Images of the Unconscious
1987 No Reino das Mães - Adelina Gomes
1990 ABC of a Strike
1996 Bahia de Todos os Sambas
2014 Afterword: Images of the Unconscious
Screenplay:
1962 Cinco Vezes Favela
1962 Pedreira de São Diogo
1964 A Seventy-Four Year-Old Fellow
1964 Maioria Absoluta
1965 The Deceased
1967 The Girl from Ipanema
1969 América do Sexo
1969 Nelson Cavaquinho
1970 A Vingança dos Doze
1971 Faustão
1972 S. Bernardo
1973 Ecologia
1973 Megalopolis
1975 Cantos de Trabalho - Mutirão
1975 Cinema Brasileiro, Mercado Ocupado
1976 Cantos de Trabalho - Cacau
1976 Cantos de Trabalho - Cana de Açúcar
1976 Partido Alto
1981 They Don't Wear Black Tie
1981 Which Country is this?
1987 Imagens do Inconsciente - Em Busca do Espaço Cotidiano
1987 Imagens do Inconsciente: A Barca do Sol
1987 Images of the Unconscious
1987 No Reino das Mães - Adelina Gomes
1990 ABC of a Strike
1996 Bahia de Todos os Sambas
2014 Afterword: Images of the Unconscious
Story:
1962 Cinco Vezes Favela
1962 Pedreira de São Diogo
1964 A Seventy-Four Year-Old Fellow
1964 Maioria Absoluta
1965 The Deceased
1967 The Girl from Ipanema
1969 América do Sexo
1969 Nelson Cavaquinho
1970 A Vingança dos Doze
1971 Faustão
1972 S. Bernardo
1973 Ecologia
1973 Megalopolis
1975 Cantos de Trabalho - Mutirão
1975 Cinema Brasileiro, Mercado Ocupado
1976 Cantos de Trabalho - Cacau
1976 Cantos de Trabalho - Cana de Açúcar
1976 Partido Alto
1981 They Don't Wear Black Tie
1981 Which Country is this?
1987 Imagens do Inconsciente - Em Busca do Espaço Cotidiano
1987 Imagens do Inconsciente: A Barca do Sol
1987 Images of the Unconscious
1987 No Reino das Mães - Adelina Gomes
1990 ABC of a Strike
1996 Bahia de Todos os Sambas
2014 Afterword: Images of the Unconscious
Writer:
1962 Cinco Vezes Favela
1962 Pedreira de São Diogo
1964 A Seventy-Four Year-Old Fellow
1964 Maioria Absoluta
1965 The Deceased
1967 The Girl from Ipanema
1969 América do Sexo
1969 Nelson Cavaquinho
1970 A Vingança dos Doze
1971 Faustão
1972 S. Bernardo
1973 Ecologia
1973 Megalopolis
1975 Cantos de Trabalho - Mutirão
1975 Cinema Brasileiro, Mercado Ocupado
1976 Cantos de Trabalho - Cacau
1976 Cantos de Trabalho - Cana de Açúcar
1976 Partido Alto
1981 They Don't Wear Black Tie
1981 Which Country is this?
1987 Imagens do Inconsciente - Em Busca do Espaço Cotidiano
1987 Imagens do Inconsciente: A Barca do Sol
1987 Images of the Unconscious
1987 No Reino das Mães - Adelina Gomes
1990 ABC of a Strike
1996 Bahia de Todos os Sambas
2014 Afterword: Images of the Unconscious
Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).
Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.