Notes on the raise of spiritual movies in Brazil

Abstract

Brazil, a country in which Spiritualism is a religion widespread, has witnessed a wave of movies with this theme. These films have had great box office, provoking interest and debate among the public and critics. However, in most of the discussions that we see in the media, there seems to be a certain rush to diagnose the phenomenon as a great novelty, without taking into account the history and even a possible Brazilian spiritualist tradition of films — a tradition from which, it seems, the current cycle can be examined. Accordingly, this article intends to discuss the possibility to speak of a tradition of spiritualist films, and from it, proposes some assumptions of analysis for the new movies.