Codes, Modes and Role Play

For this year’s Codes and Modes conference on documentary film at Hunter College, I decided to attend a screening of Eduardo Coutinho’s Jogo de Cena (2007). The film’s title translates to “Role Play” in English and given it’s content, I couldn’t think of a more perfect title in any language. The film, while documentary is highly conceptual. The Brazilian director places an ad in a Rio de Janeiro newspaper asking for auditions from women over the age of 18 with interesting stories to tell.

Who's the real deal and who's acting? Does it matter?

Some of these women are then asked to film interviews where they talk about their lives and some of the harrowing experiences they’ve had to contend with over the years. Most interesting however, is the fact that while the film contains the original interviews as they were originally shot, Coutinho also places recordings of some of Brazil’s finest actresses performing the interviews as if they were texts/monologues. 

This gives the film a certain amount of ambiguity that is both challenging and in many ways, poetic. Once we understand the concept, as an audience we instinctually try to hunt for the “real” or authentic version of the stories that we are being told. However, reality and authenticity may not always be the same thing. We are duped by talented actresses through their authentic performances until they reveal that they are performing for the camera in various way, sometimes unintentionally.  But throughout this reveal we are still given an opportunity to view and listen to something “real” as they start telling their own stories. 

Straddling the lines between documentary and narrative film, Jogo de Cena is an achievement in filmmaking, forcing us to challenge not only our thinking around the role of the actor and their relationship to truth, but also the ways in which human beings relate to one another through sharing stories. It’s a beautiful film. Touching, thought provoking, and extremely important.