Catching Up With Tropicália Director Marcelo Machado

The word “tropicália,” is best understood and expressed as an aesthetic position, rather than one particular movement, or one particular genre of music. The strangeness of this very idea makes Tropicália, the new documentary from director Marcelo Machado, an enlightening, almost psychedelic experience. Interviews with Brazilian artists and icons of the late 1960s introduce viewers to the period of time known as tropicalism, but the introduction does not allow one to walk away with a textbook definition of tropicália. Instead, we are invited to experience an art form that existed in the in-between (or just outside of it). Not left or right in its political leanings, not wholly Brazilian, nor a mere mimicry of American rock ‘n roll, tropicália is and was a fluid concept.

During the beginning of the film, graphic designer and musician Rogério Duarte’s voice is heard describing it as, “a search for a synthesis between totally contradictory ideas.” Perhaps one of the best examples of anthropophagy, or cultural cannibalism, tropicália officially began in July 1967, and ended in October 1969. But the creative ideology remains a part of the culture, ingrained in the minds of people like Marcelo Machado. Paste caught up with Machado to talk about his love for music, political fusion, and working with his friend, City of God director, Fernando Meirelles.

Paste Magazine: I read that you were very young when you first heard tropicália music. Can you describe that early experience? It must have been powerful, to have stuck with you all of these years.
Marcelo Machado: In 1968 I was ten years old. I lived in the countryside of São Paulo state, a place called Araraquara. We had TV there, but for me it was the early times of television. I think my father had gotten the television the year before, so I was very excited about it.We didn’t have the huge soap operas that we have now, but we had these music shows during primetime. They even had quiz shows about traditional Brazilian music! And then we got these music festivals, and everything was different. I didn’t have many references for the different kinds of music, but that was my music. So music became a huge issue for my generation, through television.

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I had a very young aunt who came from São Paulo, and she was beautiful. She arrived in Araraquara, and she knew how to sing all of the lyrics to “Alegria, Alegria.” I was so excited to sing with her, but that was the only music I listened to at that time. For sure, it became a very strong reference for me in my life.

Paste: At one point in the documentary, there’s footage of Gilberto Gil saying that Tropicalism is a “thing of the moment.” Do you think the music could have lasted longer than it did, or do you think its brevity is significant?
Machado: I didn’t [differentiate] between the music after the tropicalist period, and the music during the tropicalist period. After that period—when I was ten years old—I became more and more interested in music as a teenager. Then, I started to see differences between rock n’ roll, Brazilian music, classical music. I started to really understand the whole range of different types of music. But even with that, I didn’t worry about the differences.

I watched Os Mutantes live, and they weren’t even doing tropicalist music then. They were doing progressive rock, but I was interested in the Mutantes. It’s a stretch to say that there’s no difference between them, but it was still interesting, exciting music. These were still very interesting people doing very different things.

So now, doing this movie, I understand how short the tropicalist period was, and the idea of the movement didn’t last long. But I don’t care about that! Because, even then, the idea of starting and then dying—that was part of the whole thing. They didn’t care about it, that the movement didn’t last long. This mentality is a very intellectual thing that I understand now. But as a teenager, as a kid, the most interesting aspect was to have exciting, lively music that translated the time that you were living in.

Paste: Is it difficult to explain that these artists, in terms of their political leanings, were neither left or right? Many of us want to be able to put others into one box or another.
Machado: This is very important. There were other artists who engaged in the leftist movement, who fought against them. They thought that the tropicalists were on the right side of politics. But I don’t agree with that. They were really criticizing the whole status quo, and the militarized government, but in another way. I think in that time, that was really difficult to understand. But not now. More and more these two boxes will become more fused, and for the future, this approach of being leftist or from the right, will not be the most important thing for political life.

Paste:This is my first time hearing and learning about Tropicália and tropicalism. Did directing this film also function as a learning experience for you?
Machado: For sure, I learned a lot. Even watching some movies again, it was like a completely new experience for me. I didn’t understand the importance of Helio Oiticica, and Rogério Duarte. I’m older now, and I have more knowledge. I’m now in a position to criticize, and understand things differently. So it was really interesting to pass through these things again.

Now I just made some videos about a Brazilian architect, Lina Bo Bardi. She came from Italy in 1946
and decided to become Brazilian. She became a kind of professor, and she was trying to say to Brazilians, “Look! Look what you have here!” Even the popular culture, not the intellectual or avant garde, but the popular culture from the people—she wanted the people to look at how creative they were, and to look at how many interesting contributions they made. I didn’t know that people were thinking about Brazil in this very interesting way, ways that could even contribute to my view of the country. So, I was glad to do the movie, to be in touch with these ideas.

Paste: City of God director Fernando Meirelles is one of your producers, and you’ve collaborated with him in the past. How did you two decide to start working on this project?
Machado: Fernando was in LA, and two American guys were looking for him. They told him that they had this idea to do a documentary about Tropicália. These guys are very important—Vaughn Glover and Maurice James. They were the ones who first had the idea! Fernando told them that he wasn’t [interested] in directing a documentary, but he said, “I have a good friend who would love to do it.” And as soon as he got back to Brazil he told me two American guys had this amazing idea to do a documentary about Tropicália. I thought it was a great idea.

Paste: What’s next for you? Do you have any upcoming projects that we should know about?
Machado: I’m working on two projects about Brazilian architects. First, there’s one about Lina Bo Bardi. There will be an homage to her, and I’m doing the visuals for the exhibition. And next year I’m doing the same with my teacher—because I got my degree in architecture—another very important name in architecture, Vilanova Artigas. I’m working these two documentaries now, but I want to do more music documentaries in the future.

Paste: Well, I’m looking forward to more of your work. Thank you so much for this.
Machado: Thank you.

Shannon M. Houston is Assistant TV Editor at Paste, and a New York-based freelance writer with probably more babies than you. You can follow her on Twitter.