Tropical Utopia: Brazilian film addresses the history of Latin America from the perspective of the Global South

In this time of quick and shallow content on streaming platforms, one documentary is drawing attention because of the depth of its topics and the curious way in which the script is carried out: basically, it's a conversation between US intellectual Noam Chomsky and Brazilian ambassador and former minister Celso Amorim.

Tropical Utopia is permeated by animation that literally "draws" how military coups systematically overthrew left-wing governments in the Americas in the 1970s, and show how neoliberalism was imposed in the region, from the perspective and outlook of countries in the Global South. Still, the movie—which won awards at festivals around the world and has just debuted on the commercial circuit in Brasil—achieves the feat of being light, whimsical and even exciting.

Read below an exclusive interview with director João Amorim, who tells us about how the idea for the film came about, the challenges of production and what it was like recording with his father, the ambassador—and one of the documentary's protagonists—Celso Amorim.

Tropical Utopia addresses complex topics in a didactic and even whimsical way, but, at the same time, it's basically a conversation between two intellectuals. How did the idea for the script come about?

I lived in the US for many years and there I discovered Noam Chomsky's work. I read several of his books, and always talked to Celso, my father, about my wish to create something with Chomsky.

A few years ago, after being President Dilma Rousseff's Minister of Defense, Celso began giving lectures and traveling to various universities. At one of them, he met Noam. Chomsky's wife Valéria, who is Brazilian, arranged the meeting between the two, and my father, knowing my taste for Noam's work, sent me a photo of this meeting—and it was she who encouraged me to make the documentary. When I saw the picture, I felt that I had to make a film which wouldn't just be around Noam's figure, like other documentaries I've seen, but around something that would unite the two.

And what was this connection? How did you see the possibility of creating this dialogue? 

To me, the best way to bring the two together is to talk about US policy towards Latin America, the critical vision of the two, who do not always agree with each other, but have a convergent perspective concerning the topic. And then the name came right away. In fact, the name came before everything: Tropical Utopia.

From then on, we started to develop the project with the aim of putting it in a public notice until, one fine afternoon, my father called me to say that Noam would be in Brasil in two weeks. And he asked me if I wanted to record with him.

So it happened like that, suddenly?

Yes, completely. We weren't prepared, we didn't have any funding, but we agreed to. Noam was in Brasil and we couldn't miss the opportunity. So, at this moment, I led this first conversation between the two. It was a completely free thing, without any major script. I already had the idea of ​​doing something about the rise and fall of left-wing governments, the influence of the media, and I just directed the conversation, which was short, about 40 or 50 minutes.

After that, we registered the project with Brasil's FAC, which is a cultural funding notice, and we won. But the appeal took four years to be released. After a long journey, we had to file an appeal, go to court… We had to adapt the project, because the first one had been written four years earlier, in 2018.

The second time I met with Noam, I interviewed him alone. He was already very old, at the time he was 94 years old and I had to be isolated in a hotel for five days, without any staff. Only Valéria, his wife, was there. Afterwards, we recorded an interview with just my father and then there was a remote conversation between the two.

Tropical Utopia deals with relevant political topics based on a conversation between two contemporary thinkers, using animation in a didactic way and giving lightness to complex themes... It is without a doubt a very bold idea...

It was indeed a challenge. We had many limitations, and one of them was Noam's availability and advanced age. At our first meeting he was already 90 years old. We had several ideas on how to record with him, but Valéria was very clear: we couldn't do anything with him walking on the street, nor giving lectures, nor during his routine... It was going to be a conversation and that was it. So this limiting factor, in terms of language, was imposed right from the start.

We then had to work with this reality and animation presented itself as an alternative to bring this lightness that you mentioned... I worked as an animator for many years, I use this resource a lot in my work and I think it works well with documentaries. It brings lightness, helps to synthesize very complex ideas, such as the origin of neoliberalism—lol! These things, if translated into images, make it easier for people to understand.

We also worked with archive images, which was phenomenal. The film includes 600 archive images, from the 1930s to the present day. It was hard work to get the images in a good resolution, to license them… The soundtracks also helped to create this atmosphere, this lightness.

Check out the video interview

And what has people's acceptance been like?

We have participated in 12 festivals so far, the three biggest in Brasil—Brasília, Rio and São Paulo; we went to the Havana Festival, which is very renowned; we won awards in Venezuela and Portugal... The acceptance for a documentary on complex political topics, about almost half a century of the relationship between Latin America and the United States, from the perspective of two thinkers talking, is being surprisingly good (laughs).

But we also don't have any unrealistic expectations. Movie theaters nowadays rarely make room for documentaries, especially with this more political profile.

So we tried to simplify, bring it to a form that was more understandable, make a shorter film, that highlighted the problems but also offered hope. I think there's no point in saying "oh no, too late, neoliberalism is going to destroy the planet and there's nothing we can do about it." I don't believe that, there are gaps and paths that go in another direction. As Celso himself says, we need to aim for the transformation of society.

There's a phrase that is the film's subtitle—"If history doesn't repeat itself, sometimes it rhymes"—so we need to continue paying attention. The far right is working all over the world. The documentary is also about the constant risk of falling into authoritarian clutches, being under the control of people who basically have profit as their priority.

And what was it like recording this entire documentary with your father, Celso? He is an important figure in contemporary politics in Brasil and the world, a reference, but he is still your father...

As much as it may seem easier, it isn't necessarily. As well as being a prominent figure, he is my father, so he has all the personal relationships that end up permeating the process. But it was very interesting, his presence was strong, a counterpoint, a Brazilian perspective, otherwise it would be the perspective of a US intellectual talking about Latin America. They agree on many things, but they have different views on others and, in the end, it ended up being a very interesting dialogue between the two.

But I can look with pride at the person he is and the work he has done, regardless of being my father. He has a lot to add, and making the film was an incredible learning experience for me. And, you know, I think I doubt anyone else would have the audacity to make this film a conversation between the two of them... So it had to be me (laughs).