O diabo na carne de Belém: o circuito exibidor de filmes pornôs durante a decadência dos cinemas de rua na capital paraense (1985-1997)

Abstract

The movie theaters from streets were one of the main places of leisure among belenenses during the 20th century. Around this practice were fundamental elements for its realization, such as the production of films, distribution, exhibition, advertising, the commentary of the specialized critic in the newspapers and the search of the public. All these elements formed a movie show circuit that the city of Belém experienced for most of that century. Although it was always subject to change, the circuit altered significantly in the 1980s, when street’s movie theaters went through a phase of decay and some closed. The owners of Cine Ópera, Cine Nazaré, Cine Iracema, Cinema Dois and Cine Cassino, chose to show pornographic movies, material that had already been produced at an industrial pace in the US since the 1970s, but took a while to enter Brazil due to the dictatorial censorship. Therefore, the trajectory of the public interested on these films determined the dimensions of a new movie show circuit specialized in porn exhibition between 1985 and 1997. It is important to stress that the new circuit existed in parallel to the conventional and decaying display circuit. Our guiding question sought to understand what would have been the conditions that allowed and made possible the existence of this porn circuit. The results of the research in periodic and oral sources, pointed to the weakening of the institutions linked to censorship, the end of the dictatorship, the economic crisis of the 1980s, the massive entry of soft and hard core porn movies in the country, the expectation of profit of exhibitors, the public's curiosities (carnal knowledge) and sexual opportunities, in addition to a moral tolerance within society, as fundamental fact for its consolidation.