I Cannot Go to Africa Because I Am on Duty (1990)

Overview

In this vivid pastiche of images, music and text, Santos addresses technology and image-making in the context of cultural formation. Writes Santos: "Technology is explored in terms of information speed — a feature that makes popular absorption and understanding all the harder. Metaphorically, this process is akin to obtaining information through the ultra-condensation of mere legends and subtitles. Though this may occur in developed countries, such a process displays and unleashes its greatest vigor in a culture such as Brazil's. I Cannot Go to Africa Because I Am on Duty indirectly touches upon values: instead of being concerned with the information-absorption process and with the likelihood of controlling the image-producing process, we are hellbent on running a race, whose sole goal is to employ the latest technological innovation in terms of image production."