Alberto Cavalcanti: Experimental Realism in Coal Face

The examination of Brazilian filmmaker Alberto Cavalcanti’s contribution to documentary history will be undertaken here through a close analysis of his early film "Coal Face" (1935), which depicts the lives of coal workers in England. This film will be juxtaposed with two other significant documentaries from the same period. The first is "Industrial Britain" (Robert Flaherty, 1931/1933), and the second is "Housing Problems" (Arthur Elton and Edgar Anstey, 1935). This article delves into a discussion that, despite being produced during the same period, these films exhibit notable disparities in their aesthetical approaches to portraying reality.