Movie directed and written by PUCRS Professor Dr Hermílio Santos
Brazilian documentary Lifeworld – The sociology of Alfred Schütz will be exhibited in Toronto, Canada in July 18. It also premiered in Konstanz, Germany, early in May, during the 5th Conference of the International Alfred Schutz Circle. Dr Hermílio Santos, School of Humanities professor and coordinator of the Center for Economic and Social Analysis of PUCRS (Caes) directed and wrote the movie. He also directed the photography. It was edited and assembled by Thaís Zimmer Martins, with original soundtrack by Filipe Mil. A teaser is available on Youtube.
For two years, Dr Santos conducted interviews and photo sessions with the most important specialists in the work of sociologist Alfred Schütz. Although Schütz is not very popular in Brazil, he is quite an influential figure in the area of sociology internationally. Next year, an eponymous book will be released by Vozes publishing company.
Shootings were done all over the world: Buenos Aires (Argentina), Vienna (Austria), Tokyo (Japan), Konstanz (Germany), New York (USA) and in the Swiss countryside. The movie will be released in seven languages: German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Japanese and Italian. Captions will be available in Portuguese, English and German.
A vast filmography
Hermílio Santos co-directed the documentary Infância Falada (2016). The movie depicts social projects in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Ceará, Pernambuco and Minas Gerais to show how it is possible to turn children into agents of change in a violent scenario. It features tear-jerking accounts of boys and girls who have taught their parents to solve conflicts at home in a respectful way. These teenagers dream of bringing peace to their communities as they have good arguments to present and a good conduct to show.
Dr Santos also directed documentary Intimidade Vigiada (2010), featuring juveniles from Fundação de Atendimento Sócio-Educativo do Rio Grande do Sul – Fase (Juvenile Correctional Facility of Rio Grande do Sul).
Exhibits of Mundo da Vida – A Sociologia de Alfred Schütz
– Jul 18 – International Sociological Association (ISA), in Toronto (Canada).
– Aug 23 – Instituto Goethe, in Porto Alegre (Brazil).
About Alfred Schütz
The most important contribution from Schütz was the development of a phenomenological philosophy of Husserl as the basis of a social sciences philosophy, especially for the theories brought forth by Max Weber. As we went to the USA in 1939, after Austria was annexed by Germany by Hitler, he brought that theory together with those of influential US sociologists, such as George Herbert Mead. Although Schütz had never been a student of Husserl, he and his friend Felix Kaufmann studied his work systematically, as they sought to find the grounds for an “interpretative sociology” resulting from Max Weber’s work. His work has culminated in the publication of his first book Der sinnhafte Aufbau der sozialen Welt (The phenomenology of the social world), whose Portuguese version will be published shortly, by Vozes. This work called Husserl’s attention, with whom Schütz exchanged letters and paid him regular visits until his death in 1938. Husserl invited Schütz to be his assistant at the University of Freiburg in the early 1930s, but Schütz declined the offer.
