Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 10 2005 (IPS) – The Brazilian documentary Doutores da alegría (Doctors of Happiness) won prizes at two international festivals this year, as a tribute to its special mission to share the experience of a group of Brazilian actors who decided to dress up as clowns and bring joy to children in hospitals rather than at the circus.
The moving 96-minute film switches back and forth between interviews with members of the group and scenes of their performances in front of audiences of sick children, their families and hospital workers, showing the fun and laughter brought by the clowns to settings marked by pain, loss and suffering.
Mara Mourao, the director and screenwriter, provides an unadorned, straightforward vision of children facing terminal illnesses, connected to myriad tubes and wires. The film crew also made an effort to blend in by dressing up as clowns, so as not to create an artificial disturbance in the hospital rooms.
The performing arts organisation Doutores da alegría was founded in 1991 with the aim of using laughter as a healing medicine for chronically ill children in Brazil.
The group s founder, former English teacher Wellington Nogueira from the southern Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, emigrated to the United States two decades ago, to set out on an acting career.
A few years later he came across the work of Michael Christensen, director of the Big Apple Circus in New York, who trained and organised actors to bring joy and laughter into hospitals. Nogueira joined the group, overcoming his reluctance to working as a clown, an artistic tradition he had previously looked down upon.
In 1990, Nogueira returned to Sao Paulo to visit his father who was seriously ill. From his hospital bed Nogueira s father, proud of his son s talent, made him promise to give a performance for his fellow patients.
That night his father went into coma due to a brain haemorrhage. In the film, Nogueira himself tells how while he was putting on his make-up, he asked God to set down to his father s account the charitable act that he (Nogueira) was about to perform, in new surroundings and without adequate preparation.
His father awoke from the coma a few moments later, and Nogueira became convinced that it was his mission to bring to Brazil the experience he had gained in New York. So he founded Doutores da alegria , a non- governmental organisation funded by sponsors, which met with success and expanded rapidly.
At present, 37 actors bring humour and joy to a dozen hospitals in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Recife (in northeastern Brazil). More than 350,000 patients have enjoyed their compassionate, funny performances; many of them are boys and girls with cancer and other incurable illnesses.
Usually the performances involve two clowns, with an audience made up of a patient and his or her caregiver. Sometimes, however, a larger group performs,spreading laughter among several patients and nurses, or even a whole hospital wing.
Christensen s ground-breaking work should not be confused with that of the U.S. doctor whose story is told in the film Patch Adams , directed by Tom Shadyac and starring Robin Williams.
Adams was a doctor who became a clown because he believed in the therapeutic value of laughter, while Doutores da alegría are clowns who dress up as doctors, Nogueira points out.
Twenty other actors besides the founder emphasise their discovery of the social function of art through having joined the group. They also discovered the special nature of the art of clowning, and the need for absolute sincerity and honesty in their performances, which are characterised by improvisation and constant interaction with their spectators.
A psychologist, Morgana Masetti, was brought into the group initially to help the actors deal with the emotional impact of the tragic situations they came face to face with in their work. Her involvement then led to deeper reflections about the role played by the doctors and their reasons for engaging in this activity.
Out of this experience emerged a book, SOLUÇÕES DE PALHAÇOS: Transformações na realidade hospitalar (Clown Solutions: Transformations in Hospital Reality), and a research and development centre that provides consultancy services to the many researchers who are investigating what they term clowning . We are specialists in foolishness, says Nogueira.
Film-maker Mourao also fell under the spell of the doctors’ mission: she married Nogueira, and from the very start she wanted to make a film of their experience, although she feared she might not faithfully capture the spirit of generosity and dignity in their work.
Mourao had previously directed two full-length fiction movies, both of which were light comedies. One of them, Avassaladoras , received poor reviews.
Her latest film, which is now showing in commercial cinemas in Sao Paulo, where screening began in early October, and in Rio de Janeiro, has fared better.
Although it took 130 hours to shoot Doutores da alegría , which was finally ready after 11 months of editing, it was well worth the effort.
The documentary won this year s prize for best film at the Brazilian Film Festival in New York, and two special mentions from the jury and from the audience at the International Film Festival of Gramado, a city in southern Brazil, in August. It is also a regional semi-finalist in the documentary category for the 2005 International Emmy Awards.
