Editing “Desire machine: 60 years of Teatro Oficina”

Abstract

Released at the 2021 It's All True Festival, with cinemas closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Machine of desire – The 60 years of Teatro Oficina (2021) by Joaquim Castro and Lucas Weglinski is a documentary film assembled from various formats of archival images about the trajectory of Teatro Oficina, a cultural institution active since the 60’s in São Paulo. The purpose of this critique is to think from the concept of Archiveology, from the book of the same name by Catherine Russell (2018), how montage can provide new meanings to archival images beyond historiographical records or interview illustrations, through selection, juxtaposition, repetition and reframing. At the same time, this work proposes to analyze concepts proposed by the directors in interviews made close to the release of the film, such as: the theatrical choir; the idea of an “electronic terreiro” and the inseparability between art and politics in the theater of José Celso Martinez Corrêa, Zé Celso. During the editing of the film, the directors chose to make the backbone of the film the political dispute between two competing city projects: the collective project of Zé Celso, creator of Teatro Oficina, and the individualistic project of billionaire Sílvio Santos.