All Truism

It’s All True (1993) is a documentary about Orson Welles’ unmade Brazilian film of the same name. It seems that Welles was working on an idea for an anthology film, made in a semi-documentary style. The first part, filmed in Mexico with non-actors, was about the love between a boy and his bull. Before he got very far, he was approached by the US government. To support the “good neighbor” policy, designed to keep South America out of the Axis sphere, he was asked to go to Brazil and film there. He came up with the idea of making a movie about samba, and filmed a lot of Carnaval.

Around that time, a group of poor fishermen with rafts called jangadas made a perilous trip to Rio to ask for the social services they deserve. They became national celebrities and Welles decided to do one part of the film about them.  However, when he recreated their triumphant arrival in Rio, the jangada overturned,  and their leader, Jacaré, was drowned. Welles pledged that he would complete the film to honor the cause.

But as so often happened with Welles, studio interference caught up with him. Management changed and the jangadieros protest was suspiciously communist. He struggled on after the money dried up, but eventually had to abandon it. This is the first part of the film.

The second part is a reconstruction of the jangadiero movie, from existing footage found and recovered. It is shot in lyrical silent black and white, like a documentary. Some parts, like the triangular sails against the sparkling sea are almost abstract. There is a sketched in love story but it isn’t important.

I don’t know if Welles could have made these bits and bobs into a real hit movie, but it would have been interesting to see. He claims that a voodoo priest who had been promised a part in the movie cursed it when the funding ran out. He may have been right - I don’t think he had an easy time making a movie after this.