It's All True

In 1942, during the Second World War, Orson Welles was asked by Nelson Rockefeller, the Coordinator of the Office of Inter-American Affairs under Franklin D. Roosevelt, to go to Rio de Janeiro to film "Carnaval" as part of a general effort to shore up US-Brazilian relations. Once there, even as Welles struggled unsuccessfully to retain control of the editing of "Magnificent Ambersons" back in California by phone and cable, he fell in love with Brazil. The result was not just spectacular footage of Carnaval, but also an additional episode for the proposed film: the re-staging of an astounding journey by four men on a "jangada," (wooden raft) who traveled from northern Brazil to Rio in hopes of getting the President of Brazil to extend social benefits to poor fishermen like themselves. During the re-staging for the film of the fishermen's arrival in Rio, one of the men drowned in a freak accident after the long journey from Ceará. The ill-fated movie was never completed and the film was lost to history for over fifty years after Welles's budget was slashed and he was forced to abandon the project.

This documentary film uses Welles's re-discovered footage as its basis and includes interviews with surviving members of the original team as well as with the families of the "jangaceiros." The documentary provides a startling look not only at Brazil in 1942, but also at what might have been another masterpiece by the great North American director. The entire raft episode was edited and presented for the first time in the documentary.

The annual São Paulo International Documentary Film Festival is called "E Tudo Verdade / It's All True" in honor of this film, which plays an ever more significant role in both Brazilian and American film history.