It's All True

In February 1942, a short time after the success of CITIZEN KANE and still during the finishing phase of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, Orson Welles travelled to Brazil. Coerced by the American government, the RKO-studio in these precarious days sent the 26-year-old film genius off on a kind of goodwill-mission. Welles may have been many-sided, he was not a diplomat. By showing his interest in the slums of Rio de Janeiro he quickly forfeited the Brazilian government's credit. RKO also pulled out, unsatisfied with the dispatched carnival scenes and their spirits broken by Welles's telegrams about the magnificent ambersons. Accompanied by two associates, Welles left for northern Brazil to execute his initial plan. Four men on a raft, it was called, about four fishermen - jangadeiros - who had covered 1600 miles on a raft in order to file a protest against the government in Rio about their inadequate legal position. The film was never completed, Welles severed all relations with Hollywood. In the late eighties the footage of this film, which had been deemed lost forever, was recovered. Except for these twenty restored minutes of film, it's all true contains an accurate reconstruction of Welles's Brazilian adventure. One of the three directors, Richard Wilson, was one of the two associates who were on the trip in 1942.