Leon Hirszman

The son of Polish Jewish immigrants, Leon Hirszman was born on 22nd November 1937 in Rio de Janeiro. He died in the same city on 15th September 1987. The Brazilian screenwriter and director was a leading figure in the Cinema Novo movement inspired by Italian Neorealism and the French New Wave. After studying engineering, he got involved at a very early age in his country’s social and political life, devoting himself to screening activist movies in film clubs. After several documentaries rooted in Brazil’s sociological realities, he directed his most striking film “São Bernardo” (1971), inspired by the book by Graciliano Ramos, but its release was delayed by the censors. In 1981, the unlucky producer who ran the Brazilian Film Cooperative founded by the veterans of Cinema Novo (1980) shot a documentary about striking workers (“ABC da Greve”) and the adaptation of an avant-garde play describing the working-class condition, “They Don't Wear Black Tie” (Eles não usam Black-Tie), which won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival. His final film was a trilogy entitled “Imagens do Inconsciente” (1986). Leon Hirszman died from AIDS-related complications contracted during a blood transfusion.