Cantos de Trabalho - Mutirão

This entry from the "Cantos do Trabalho" series of shorts made by the great Leon Hirszman in the 1970's was a little special. It presents corn clearing workers in Alagoas chanting and singing during the hard work, a common tradition in many fields in the country and one tradition that was fading away at the time (if not had disappeared at all).

Unlike the "Cacau" entry where a narrator explained the scenario and context for a similar type of event, this one just gave us a small introductory text then it jumped to the action. Somehow this one worked a lot better than the other short but it's not because of that since the ritual is quite similar with workers working the field with great energy and singing at the same time (kind of boring since it's hard to understand what they're singing about) but there's a curious second act which makes things fascinating in a strange way. It revolves the union between men, women and children building the walls from their houses, working the land and the water, carrying loads of clay from one place to the other and then putting it together to make their house of clay.

In this second part there isn't much singing but you can feel the sense of union and cooperation from everyone involved, they're all happy to be part of the process of constructing the small simple houses despite being a very hard and tiring working process. One great example comes from a particular kid who carries loads of clay on his back when everyone else just carries one load or passes it forward to the next person. Something intrigued me about this boy who kept waiting for more and more things to carry on his back, and patiently awaits for it until he feels satisfied and walks back to the house.

For curious minds in seeing a distant reality that still struggles, survives and has its importance for all communities possible since they work the nature products that get spread and sold all across the nation and elsewhere, this is a quite interesting film, even for foreign viewers since everything's more a case of observing the images than listening to the sounds (just for the songs since no one gets interviewed to presented something about their work or their tradition. Though I do think think Mr. Hirszman should have given voice to some of the workers so we could hear why such rituals are important to them or at least present what they sing about). A fine short documentary. 6/10.