They
appreciate an excuse to party in Brazil, especially when it comes hot on the
heels of the military regime’s fall from power. First contact would certainly
fit the bill. Clarice Saliby chronicles the would-have been close encounter
that turned into a gathering in the short documentary, The Casimiro Effect (trailer here), which screens
during the 2014 Brazilian Film Festival in New York.
After
years of military authority, the Brazilian media apparently threw out their
filters and ran any story that caught their fancy. As a result, a rather rustic
gentleman in Casimiro de Abreu got tremendous pick-ups claiming his was the
aliens’ advance man. Supposedly, they were coming to Casimiro at an appointed
hour. He could even predict some cosmic activity, claiming it was alien reconnoitering.
So
what happened? Every Brazilian with a guitar packed up their VW van and headed
to Casimiro. Obviously, the aliens never came but it was a heck of a party. Saliby
tracks some of the leading witnesses of the party-slash-hoax, who try to keep
the extraterrestrial dream alive, but give us a break. Who needs aliens if you
have good music?
