Luiz Carlos Barreto dies at the age of 98 One of the main names in the history of Brazilian cinema, Luiz Carlos Barreto, who died at the age of 98 this Tuesday (22), stated in an interview with 'Conversa com Bial' that the success of the sector in the 1970s and 1980s was the result of a policy of encouraging national production. In the conversation, he also criticized the closure of Ancine and analyzed the contemporary challenges of audiovisual. In the TV Globo attraction, the filmmaker known as 'Barretão' addressed decisive moments in the history of Brazilian cinema, recalled the Embrafilme period, commented on cultural production during the military dictatorship and reflected on the challenges faced by the sector in recent years. When recalling Embrafilme's role in strengthening the audiovisual industry, Barretão summarized his vision of the sector's historical challenge in a sentence that became one of the highlights of the interview with Pedro Bial. "We need to export Brazilian films into Brazil," he stated. According to him, more important than looking for space abroad was creating conditions for national productions to reach the Brazilian public. Reference of Cinema Novo, Luiz Carlos Barreto marked generations Luiz Carlos Barreto, exponent of Brazilian cinema, dies in Rio When remembering the period in which national cinema achieved attendance records and came to represent around 42% of the market, Barreto attributed the performance to a strategy to strengthen Brazilian production. “It was the result of a policy,” he stated. He also mentioned productions such as Dona Flor and Seu Dois Maridos, directed by Bruno Barreto, and stated that the audiovisual industry must be capable of producing both big box office hits and medium-sized films. According to him, these works are fundamental to renewing cinematographic language, expanding the diversity of production and winning over new audiences. Ditadura Barreto also recalled the period of the military dictatorship and challenged the idea that there was a single cultural policy throughout the more than 20 years of the regime. According to him, different governments adopted different stances in relation to cinema, which allowed moments of greater support for Brazilian audiovisual production. At another point in the interview, the producer assessed the situation of the sector in recent years. When commenting on the shutdown of the National Cinema Agency (Ancine) and the difficulties faced by the audiovisual sector, he stated that the weakening of incentive mechanisms began even before the Bolsonaro government, although he criticized the project which, according to him, sought to dismantle Brazilian cultural production. With a trajectory that spanned decades of national cinema, Luiz Carlos Barreto produced some of the most important films in the country's history and helped consolidate a generation responsible for projecting Brazilian production inside and outside Brazil. In the interview with Conversa com Bial, he also left a diagnosis about the direction of the industry he helped to build.