Eduardo Coutinho


Eduardo de Oliveira Coutinho was a Brazilian film director, screen writer, actor and film producer, known as one of the most important documentarists in Brazil.
He directed and wrote the script to the 1967 popular Brazilian film, ABC do amor near the beginning of his career. The film was entered into the 17th Berlin International Film Festival.
He died on February 2, 2014 in a suspected murder in Rio de Janeiro, his son, who suffers schizophrenia being the prime suspect in the ongoing investigation.

Biography

Born in São Paulo in 1933, Coutinho was a law school graduate. He worked as copy editor at the magazine Visão between 1954 and 1957, and after that he went to France to study film direction at the Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques.
Back to Brazil in 1960, Coutinho collaborated with the Centro Popular de Cultura - CPC, an intellectual group associated to the Brazilian National Student Union, where he produced the 1962 film Cinco Vezes Favela.
Chosen to direct CPC's next production, Coutinho started to work in a fiction based on the death of João Pedro Teixeira, a peasant leader of the Ligas Camponesas in Pernambuco, titled Cabra marcado para morrer. The own rural workers would play themselves in the film, including Elizabeth, Teixeira's widow. The production was interrupted by the 1964 military coup d'état, and part of the production was imprisoned. After the end of dictatorship in Brazil, in 1985, the film was resumed, but as a documentary with shots of the original film and interviews of the surviving production members.
In 1966, Coutinho has constituted a film production company with Leon Hirszman and Marcos Faria. He wrote and directed ABC do Amor in 1967, The Man who Bought the World and Faustão.
Later he has specialized in screenwriting, being a writer for films such as Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands. Between 1976 and 1984, Coutinho was part of the crew of TV program Globo Repórter.

Filmography

YearOriginal titleEnglish release titleLanguageNotes
1967O Pacto PortugueseSegment of The ABC of Love. Brazilian-argentinian co-production.
1968O Homem Que Comprou o MundoThe Man Who Bought the WorldPortuguese
1971FaustãoPortuguese
1976Seis Dias de Ouricuri PortugueseShort documentary on the life conditions of the Ouricuri city in Brazil.
1978Theodorico: Imperador do Sertão Theodorico: Emperor of the InteriorPortuguese
1979Exu: Uma Tragédia Sertaneja Exu: A Tragedy in the Back CountryPortuguese
1984Cabra Marcado para Morrer Twenty Years LaterPortuguese
1987Santa Marta: Duas Semanas no Morro Santa Marta: Two Weeks in the SlumsPortugueseDocumentary on the daily life in the Dona Marta favela.
1989Volta Redonda: Memorial da Greve PortugueseShort documentary.
1991O Fio da Memória Portuguese
1993Boca de Lixo ScavengersPortugueseDocumentary on the waste pickers' daily life in the Itaoca neighborhood in the São Gonçalo city.
1994Os Romeiros do Padre Cícero PortugueseShort documentary.
1995Seis Histórias PortugueseShort documentary.
1996Mulheres no Front PortugueseShort documentary.
1999Santo Forte The Mighty SpiritPortugueseShort documentary on the March of the One Hundred Thousand.
2000Babilônia 2000 PortugueseDocumentary on the 1999-2000 New Year's Eve celebrations on the favelas located in the Morro da Babilônia.
2000Porrada PortugueseShort documentary.
2002 Master: A Building in CopacabanaPortugueseDocumentary on the residents of the Edifício Master apartment building in Rio de Janeiro.
2004Peões MetalworkersPortugueseDocumentary on the workers who took part on the 1978-1980 workers' strike in the ABC Region.
2005O Fim e o Princípio The End and the BeginningPortuguese
2007Jogo de Cena PlayingPortuguese
2009Moscou MoscowPortuguese
2010Um Dia na Vida A Day in the LifePortuguese
2011As Canções SongsPortuguese
2014Sobreviventes de Galileia PortugueseHalf-length documentary.
2014A Família de Elizabeth Teixeira Elizabeth Teixeira's FamilyPortugueseSequel to Cabra Marcado para Morrer.
2015Últimas Conversas Last ConversationsPortuguese