LETTER FROM SAO PAULO

"Soberano." The name is emblazoned in gold letters on the façade of a small house in Santa Ifigênia, right in the heart of Sao Paulo. On a warm March afternoon, in this working-class district nicknamed the "electronics paradise" for its abundance of stores specializing in sound and lighting, there was nothing to suggest a major event. And yet, it was the setting for the rebirth of a "Brazilian Hollywood."

The idea came from a couple of enthusiasts: Renata Forato, sporting round glasses and a black fringe, and Marcelo Colaiácovo, a tall bearded man with colorful shirts. Aged 41, they set themselves the task of reopening the Soberano bar, a legendary venue on the Rua do Triunfo where the crème de la crème of the Brazilian film industry used to gather. "The idea is to revive a place that played host to so many of the geniuses of popular and democratic cinema," said the duo.

On the street, "there are no plaques or monuments to remind us of the history of this district," lamented Renata, a cultural producer in Sao Paulo. From the 1960s to the 1980s, it was the nerve center of local cinema, with over 1,000 films produced. At the time, the "Hollywood" or "Brazilian Cinecittà" area was known throughout the country by a curious name: Boca do Lixo, literally, "mouth of garbage."

On Rua do Triunfo and its adjacent thoroughfares, filmmakers cohabited with prostitutes and the homeless in an extraordinary creative boom. "Drama, swashbuckler, kung fu, detective, horror, experimental: we produced everything in La Boca!" recalled Marcelo, a filmmaker and passionate researcher. The district was known for "cinema marginal," focused on counterculture, "feijoada westerns" (the Brazilian version of cowboy films), and "pornochanchada," low-budget erotic comedies.

Directors, actors, and producers all met at the Soberano, the HQ of this crazy, extravagant cinema. Reopened on March 13, the three-story premises will now house a zinc bar and a restaurant, complete with posters on the wall, as well as exhibition rooms and film screenings. "We need to remedy this loss of memory," insisted Renato and Marcelo, who, after 20 years of research, have a huge stock of archives.

"Boca do Lixo was the richest period in Brazilian cinema," said Andrea Ormond, a writer and art critic specializing in the movement. This was due to the neighborhood's proximity to the large Luz railway station: "This proximity facilitated the transport of reels to inland cities," she recalled. From the 1920s onwards, dozens of distributors and production companies set up shop in Santa Ifigênia. Among them were such behemoths as Paramount, Fox, MGM, and Columbia Pictures.

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