[Amazonas, Maior Rio do Mundo] / The Wonders of the Amazon

Silvino Simões dos Santos: [Amazonas, Maior Rio do Mundo] / Divy veletoku Amazonky / The Wonders of the Amazon (BR 1918). Credit: Národni Filmový archiv, Prague. Photo montage: Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, 2023.

Divy veletoku Amazonky (BR 1918) regia/dir, photog: Silvino Simões dos Santos Silva. prod: Amazônia Cine-Film. copia/copy: DCP, c. 54'07" (da/from 35 mm safety b&w dupe neg); did./titles: CZE. fonte/source: Národní filmový archiv, Praha.

    Unreleased in Finland.

    Grand piano: José Maria Serralde Ruiz.

    Teatro Verdi, Pordenone, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM): Rediscoveries, 10 Oct 2023

Sávio Luis Stoco (GCM 2023): “ The Wonders of the Amazon (variously translated) was the title given to the documentary Amazonas, maior rio do Mundo by Silvino Simões dos Santos Silva (1886-1969) when it was illegally distributed in Europe, and until now it has been considered lost. A legendary production by this prolific Portuguese director based in Brazil, it looms large in the history of Brazilian cinema, which counts few remaining films from the silent period. Shot in the Brazilian and Peruvian Amazon, developed and edited in Manaus, the film was fraudulently sold to Gaumont, who first trade showed it in London on 2.12.1921, recut into 12 half-reel chapters and titled by William George Clifford. Before its wider British release in 1922, the man responsible for its illegal export, Propércio de Mello Saraiva, published an illustrated article in The Wide World Magazine (1.1922) about the adventures involved in its filming, not without fictional liberties, claiming he was the director. Shortly after, when exhibited in Paris as Les Merveilles de l’Amazone, it was praised by Léon Moussinac in L’Humanité (2.7.1923), as “a first-rate document on the mores, customs, and most contrasting and varied aspects of the races.” The film circulated until around 1931, including in Italy, Germany, and Czechoslovakia. All traces of it then disappeared, until it was fortuitously identified at the Národní filmový archiv in Prague in 2023. “

“ The documentary was the main venture of Amazônia Cine-Film (1917-1920), based in Manaus and headed by Silvino Santos, who, alongside Luiz Thomas Reis, director of Rituais e festas Bororo (1917), was one of the main non-fiction filmmakers active in Brazilian cinema in the early 20th century. Saraiva was tasked with officially negotiating the international sale of Amazonas, maior rio do Mundo, but his absconding with the print caused the production company to go bankrupt, reorienting the filmmaker’s entire trajectory. Due to the theft, it is believed that the film was never given a public screening in Brazil. “

“ A close viewing of the Czech print, Divy veletoku Amazonky, reveals strong parallels with Silvino Santos’ greatest success, No paiz das Amazonas (1922), made under the auspices of the Manaus-based J. G. Araújo & Cia. When examined side-by-side, it becomes apparent that Santos attempted a true remake, developing geographic and ethnographic subthemes in the earlier documentary (nuts, rubber, manatee and pirarucu fishing, etc.), as well as reproducing editing rhythms and the framing and sequencing of shots. It’s the equivalent of being able to compare Robert Flaherty’s lost 1914 precursor of Nanook of the North with the 1922 classic. Everything is different yet very similar, with very few location changes; the only footage that Santos demonstrably reused involves the rituals of the indigenous Peruvian Witoto, who can be recognized in both films (especially the two Witoto who show off their ears and tooth necklaces), although not all shots existing in one film appear in the other. “

“ Divy veletoku Amazonky combines genres, most notably the travel film, with its river journey, exploration of forest landscapes, and stops in the Amazonian capitals of Belém and Manaus together with the cities of Itacoatiara (Amazonas) and Santarém (Pará), as well as natural landmarks, villages, and shipping stations along river channels such as the Amazon, the Solimões, and the Purus. Some of these are named in the intertitles, others are only recognizable through image analysis (such as the distinction between the ports of Manaus and Belém) or inferences from surviving documentary sources. However, the film has the modernity of eliminating the figure of the explorer/traveller, leaving the audience with only the intertitles as a guide to understanding the sometimes subtle articulations between shots or sequences. “

“ Furthermore, Divy veletoku Amazonky flirts with industrial and colonial films in sequences detailing the processes related to the extraction of local products of interest to foreigners, such as rubber, wood, Brazil nuts, cotton, wild animal skins, and egret feathers, which were a staple of women’s fashion at the time. In addition there are elements of nature films in the prominent appearance of wild and domestic animals, including the friendly dog wearing a decorated gourd from Santarém. This rediscovered print appears to be complete and accords with what’s known from the documentary record, both visual and written, with rare exceptions. The most identifiable gap is the absence of scenes showing the production of cocoa in Santarém, referred to in documentation (and in the Czech intertitles), but which strangely are absent in corresponding shots, even though the municipality is represented with its port and decorated indigenous gourds. “

“ Silvino Santos mentions in his unpublished autobiography Romance da minha vida [Romance of My Life] that the intertitles were done in England, so it’s assumed the Czech titles were also written by the local distributor, which explains the colonialist tone praising the modern urbanism and infrastructure in Manaus, Belém, and Santarém, to the detriment of all the other locations. In keeping with this vision, the documentary presents an ethnographic sequence (another relevant film genre) showing preparations for a ritual carried out by indigenous women in Witoto territory in eastern Peru, but calls them “savages” who “only 50 years ago decorated their huts with the skulls of their enemies.” “

“ Writing his memoir from Manaus in 1969, Silvino expressed his sadness that the film had vanished: “it is still in the orbit of the planets.” In February 2023 the Národní filmový archiv sent a link of the film to Jay Weissberg, who then contacted me to confirm his suspicion that the documentary was indeed Santos’ lost work. The DCP made by the Prague archive derives from a b&w dupe negative made in 1981 from a now disintegrated tinted nitrate print. “ – Sávio Luis Stoco

AA: I am grateful for Sávio Luis Stoco for his rewarding introduction to this remarkable documentary. I have not seen Silvino Santos's second Amazon movie, No País das Amazonas (1922) so cannot compare his first exploration classic, Santos's two Amazon films juxtaposed by Stoco with Flaherty's two Far North films.

Léon Moussinac's enthusiastic remarks quoted by Stoco above still seem valid. The magnificent exploration of the mightiest river of the world (with only the Nile a contender) is still a rousing experience, combining (still paraphasing Stoco) the genres of the travel film, the industrial film, the colonial film, the nature film and the ethnographic film.

Like the grand river journeys in literature, including Heart of Darkness, this is "a journey to the beginnings of time" (as stated by Marlow in Joseph Conrad's novel), although not venturing to expose the horror of colonialism. Silvino Santos has perfect cinematic sense in his "phantom ride" approach to the journey on the river boat. He uses iris shots, sweeps and montages.

We register ancient rock inscriptions, meet indigenous peoples, observe rubber plantations (including caoutchuk / India rubber / latex), milk trees, Rio Tapajós, gigantic mahoganys, log rolling on the Amazon where the tall trees seem like blades of grass (log transportation on the river brings to the film another genre connection: the lumberjack film, then topical in Nordic countries), forest industry, manufacturing tapioca, Manaus (Brazil, the largest city on the river) the center of the forest industry.

We observe cultivating cassava = manioc, natives feeding on fish, women focusing on knitting, huge fish among the catch, cleaning and drying the catch, lizards trying to get their share, as well as small crabs, catching turtles, Belem (Brazil, the principal city of commerce on the river) the center of fish trade. There is a montage of various species of birds, including birds of paradise and jays' nests. Also a montage of butterflies. Cotton fields, pressing cotton. A mini train in the jungle carries the cotton. 

Wild tribes have unique adorned noses and ears. Trousers are in fashion. Dance is of the essence. The big girls' festival attracts girls from the whole country. Views of natural nudity. Ascending the great river we meet giant water lilies, Victoria Regia (aka Victoria Regina, known today as Victoria amazonica). What a wonderful symbol of the female life force and the vital power of the magnificent river.

"Habent sua fata libelli" ("Books have their destiny"), as Terentius said, and so have films. Lost for a century, Silvino Santos's first Amazon film has now been resurrected. The surviving preserved print is reportedly almost complete, but in the process of duplications, it survives in a visually mediocre copy with no good contrast and missing black and white levels. 

Still and all, it is a grand real life adventure, certain to grow in value as a documentary record of lost ways of life, invaluable and unique in the history of humanity.