Carlos Diegues attended the
Pontificia Universidade Católica in Rio de Janeiro. In 1959 he began his legal studies at the university. A university engaged with political affairs, Diegues immersed himself in political activism through the Juventude Universitária Católica (Catholic Youth Movement) and the Centros Populares de Cultura (Popular Cultural Centers) (CPC). As a left leaning student, he pursued filmmaking as he applied his deep understanding of social criticism in his works. or CPCs, both originating in leftist student politics. In the CPCs Diegues started his career as a filmmaker. Diegues later went on to become an integral participant of the Cinco Vezes Favela and produced the episode
Escola de Samba: Alegría de vivir in 1962. Doing so, he criticized the Carnival and suggested workers should unionize and demand workers rights. His work painted a bleak picture of what was the reality. Depicting landlords and leaders in charge as figures who upheld an inequitable world. His film sparked mixed emotions, but most importantly, it gave the working masses hope for change. This was the beginning of an era in film known as Cinema Novo. In the 60s the films associated with Cinema Novo explicitly talked about the unfair treatment of people under the status quo. The leftist ideas by filmmakers like Diegues and other important figures would allow the Cinema Novo to flourish. As the dictatorship reached full force in the late 1960s the CPC could no longer operate as regularly for the members. As a result, Diegues and other filmmakers were forced to redirect the paths of their careers. In his earliest works Diegues created Joana Francesa by 1975, when the dictatorship repressed and censored most of the media and entertainment industries. This film alluded to the ideas of inequality and injustice but it also garnered criticism by the left as they suggested it was not as intricate or heavily influenced by the social commentary Diegues had used before. == Filmography ==