Eduardo Coutinho

Eduardo de Oliveira Coutinho (May 11, 1933 – February 2, 2014) was a Brazilian documentary filmmaker, director, screenwriter, film producer and former reporter, known as one of the most important documentarists in Brazil.

He directed and wrote the script to the 1967 popular Brazilian film ABC do amor near the beginning of his career. The film was entered into the 17th Berlin International Film Festival.

He died on February 2, 2014, in a suspected murder in Rio de Janeiro by his son, who has schizophrenia.

Biography Born in São Paulo in 1933, Coutinho was a law school graduate. He worked as copy editor at the magazine Visão between 1954 and 1957, and after that he went to France to study film direction at the Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques.

Back to Brazil in 1960, Coutinho collaborated with the Centro Popular de Cultura - CPC (Popular Center of Culture), an intellectual group associated to the Brazilian National Student Union, where he produced the 1962 film Cinco Vezes Favela.

Chosen to direct CPC's next production, Coutinho started to work in a fiction based on the death of João Pedro Teixeira, a peasant leader of the Ligas Camponesas in Pernambuco, titled Cabra marcado para morrer. The own rural workers would play themselves in the film, including Elizabeth, Teixeira's widow. The production was interrupted by the 1964 military coup d'état, and part of the production was imprisoned. After the end of dictatorship in Brazil, in 1985, the film was resumed, but as a documentary with shots of the original film and interviews of the surviving production members.

In 1966, Coutinho has constituted a film production company with Leon Hirszman and Marcos Faria. He wrote and directed ABC do Amor in 1967, The Man who Bought the World (1968) and Faustão (1970).

Later he has specialized in screenwriting, being a writer for films such as Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (1976). Between 1976 and 1984, Coutinho was part of the crew of TV program Globo Repórter.

In 2014, Eduardo Coutinho was stabbed to death by his son, Daniel Coutinho, who was considered 'unaccountable' at trial and was hospitalized for suffering from mental illness.

Filmography + KeyIndicates a documentaryIndicates a short film

+ List of films directed by Eduardo Coutinho Year Original title English release title(s) Language(s) Notes 1967 O Pacto Portuguese Segment of The ABC of Love (1967). Brazilian-Argentinian co-production. 1968 O Homem Que Comprou o Mundo The Man Who Bought the World Portuguese 1971 Faustão Portuguese 1976 Seis Dias de Ouricuri Portuguese Short documentary on the life conditions of the Ouricuri city in Brazil. 1978 Theodorico: Imperador do Sertão Theodorico: Emperor of the Interior Portuguese 1979 Exu: Uma Tragédia Sertaneja Exu: A Tragedy in the Back Country Portuguese 1984 Cabra Marcado para Morrer Twenty Years Later Portuguese 1987 Santa Marta: Duas Semanas no Morro Santa Marta: Two Weeks in the Slums Portuguese Documentary on the daily life in the Santa Marta favela. 1989 Volta Redonda: Memorial da Greve Portuguese Short documentary. 1991 O Fio da Memória Portuguese 1993 Boca de Lixo Scavengers Portuguese Documentary on the waste pickers' daily life in the Itaoca neighborhood in the São Gonçalo city. 1994 Os Romeiros do Padre Cícero Portuguese Short documentary. 1995 Seis Histórias Portuguese Short documentary. 1996 Mulheres no Front Portuguese Short documentary. 1999 Santo Forte The Mighty Spirit Portuguese Short documentary on the March of the One Hundred Thousand. 2000 Babilônia 2000 Portuguese Documentary on the 1999-2000 New Year's Eve celebrations on the favelas located in the Morro da Babilônia. 2000 Porrada Portuguese Short documentary. 2002 Edifício Master Master: A Building in Copacabana Portuguese Documentary on the residents of the Edifício Master apartment building in Rio de Janeiro. 2004 Peões Metalworkers Portuguese Documentary on the workers who took part on the 1978-1980 workers' strike in the ABC Region. 2005 O Fim e o Princípio The End and the Beginning Portuguese 2007 Jogo de Cena Playing Portuguese 2009 Moscou Moscow Portuguese 2010 Um Dia na Vida A Day in the Life Portuguese 2011 As Canções Songs Portuguese 2014 Sobreviventes de Galileia Portuguese Half-length documentary. 2014 A Família de Elizabeth Teixeira Elizabeth Teixeira's Family Portuguese Sequel to Cabra Marcado para Morrer. 2015 Últimas Conversas Last Conversations Portuguese