Winner of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS) 2023 Award for Best First Monograph.Winner of the Association of Moving Image Researchers (AIM) 2022 Award for Best Monograph.Guilherme Carréra’s compelling book examines imagery of ruins in contemporary Brazilian cinema and considers these representations in the context of Brazilian society. Carréra analyses three groups of unconventional documentaries focused on distinct geographies: Brasília - The Age of Stone (2013) and White Out, Black In (2014); Rio de Janeiro - ExPerimetral (2016), The Harbour (2013), Tropical Curse (2016) and HU Enigma (2011); and indigenous territories - Corumbiara: They Shoot Indians, Don’t They? (2009), Tava, The House of Stone (2012), Two Villages, One Path (2008) and Guarani Exile (2011). In portraying ruinscapes in different ways, these powerful films articulate critiques of the notions of progress and (under) development in the Brazilian nation. Carréra invites the reader to walk amid the debris and reflect upon the strategies of spatial representation employed by the filmmakers. He addresses this body of films in relation to the legacies of Cinema Novo, Tropicália and Cinema Marginal, asking how these presentday films dialogue with or depart from previous traditions. Through this dialogue, he argues, the selected films challenge not only documentary-making conventions but also the country’s official narrative.
Guilherme Carréra is a Brazilian film researcher and curator. He holds a PhD in Film awarded by the University of Westminster. His project was sponsored by the CAPES Foundation (Ministry of Education, Brazil).
FiguresAcknowledgementsIntroduction: In search of Brazilian ruinsPart OneFraming the ruins: From Cinema Novo to contemporary Brazilian documentary1: A realm for the ruins of Brazil2: Cinema Novo: A country in crisis3: Documentary in the wake of Cinema da Retomada Part TwoThe other side of progress: Cinematic (re)constructions of Brasilia4: A controversial spatiality: Myth and apartheid5: Realism under erasure or not quite: New imagery and storytelling6: The Age of Stone : The uchronic mode of a monument7: White Out, Black In : Exploding the Third World from a laje point of viewPart ThreeConstructing ruins in Rio de Janeiro: An intermedial visualization of failing projects8: Tropicalia: An intermedial counterculture9: The rubble as the legacy: A ruin for the World Cup and the Olympics10: The Carmen Miranda ruinous spaceship in Tropical Curse11: A lame-leg architecture: Half-hospital, half-ruin in H U EnigmaPart FourThe long-standing ruination: Indigenous territory in dispute12: Setting the ground: Cinema Novo and indigenous representation13: The Video nas Aldeias case: For an indigenous media to emerge14: ‘Here, in this scenario of destruction …’: Territory of ruins in Corumbiara15: Made of stone and ruins: Indigenous filmmaking in Tava, The House of Stone, Two Villages, One Path and Guarani Exile Conclusion: A walk amid the cinematic ruinsNotesReferencesFilmographyIndex
This is an intriguing walk amidst Brazilian ruins, from the outskirts of the capital to a Jesuit building in an indigenous area. By looking at those testimonies of underdevelopment, the author unfolds an extraordinary series of Brazilian singularities, but also illuminates our past, present and future in a neoliberal world.
Ifdal Elsaket, Daniël Biltereyst, Philippe Meers, Egypt) Elsaket, Ifdal (Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo, Belgium) Biltereyst, Daniel (Ghent University, Belgium) Meers, Philippe (University of Antwerp, Daniel Biltereyst