Além da diferença: a mulher no Cinema da Retomada

This paper analyses the female participation in the Brazilian Film Revival of the 1990s beyond differences of sex, race, class, age and ethnicity. Its main contention is that the most decisive contribution brought about by the rise of women in recent Brazilian cinema has been the spread of team work and shared authorship, as opposed to a mere aspiration to the auteur pantheon, as determined by a notoriously male-oriented tradition.

Going global: the Brazilian scripted film

This article departs from the assumption that a certain section of world cinema, usually defined as ‘independent’, has been evolving on the basis of good scripts. Between the late 1980s and early 90s, there has been a boom of new cinemas in the world, such as the new Iranian, Taiwanese, Japanese, Mexican, Argentine and Brazilian cinemas. A significant part of this production shows a renewed interest in local and national peculiarities of their respective countries, going against the grain of globalisation and its typical cultural dilution. Most of these films are also engaged in reassessing narrative cinema, as a kind of reaction against the deconstructive work carried out by postmodern cinema of the 1980s.Recent new cinemas are supported by a combination of local and international resources, derived from public and private sponsors at home, and funding agencies, festivals and TV channels abroad. In most cases funds are granted after the film script has been analysed and approved by commissions of experts. The New Brazilian Cinema, or cinema da retomada as it is locally called, has been enormously affected by this scheme, which has even caused a ‘script boom’ in Brazil in the past decade. The chapter examins the results of this process.

Utopía e imágenes marinas en el cine Brasileño: Papel fundamental de Glauber Rocha

Gracias a su riqueza y complejidad, las imágenes marítimas de Rocha se convirtieron en la fuente principal de los motivos utópicos disponibles en el cine brasileño. En particular, “El Cinema de Retomada” de mediados de los años noventa trajo mitos inaugurales y los impulsos vinculados a la formación de Brasil y la identidad nacional, favoreciendo el retorno del pensamiento utópico. Terra em Transe ofrece un punto de partida para la trayectoria utópica más reciente. Representaría el oscuro período de gobierno del presidente Collor, cuando la transición a la democracia parecía condenada al fracaso, Brasil se había convertido en una nación de emigrantes, y el mar, que un día fue cruzado por los descubridores portugueses, llevó a los personajes hacia la derrota y la muerte, en lugar del paraíso esperado. Desde ese momento, impulsada por un giro económico favorable en el país, la curva se eleva, proporcionando una lectura más positiva de las imágenes del sertón del Cine Nuevo. Películas como Corisco y Dada (Rosemberg Cariry, 1996), Baile perfumado, (Lírio Ferreira y Paulo Caldas, 1997) y Crede-mi (Bia Lessa y Dany Roland, 1997) muestran un sertón colorido junto al mar e imágenes marinas, evidenciando la posibilidad, o incluso la realización del paraíso prometido. Muchas otras películas de los noventa presentaron imágenes del mar y extensiones de agua, ya sea en sus escenas de apertura o en momentos claves en los que adquieren un significado totalmente alegórico. Por ejemplo O Sertão das memorias (José Araújo, 1996), Bocage, o triunfo do amor (Djalma Limongi Batista, 1998), Ação entre amigos (Betro Brant, 1998), Terra do mar (Eduardo Caron y Mirella Martinelli, 1998) y Hans Staden (Luiz Alberto Pereira, 1999). La lista en sí, de ninguna manera exhaustiva, da fe de la importancia del tropo marítimo en el reciente cine brasileño y al rol inaugural de Rocha en la formación de la imaginación cinematográfica de Brasil.

Beyond difference: female participation in the Brazilian film revival of the 1990s

In this chapter, I will focus on the female participation in what became known as ‘The Retomada do Cinema Brasileiro’, or the Brazilian Film Revival, by thinking beyond differences of gender, class, age and ethnicity. I will first re-consider the Retomada phenomenon against the backdrop of its historical time, so as to evaluate whether the production boom of the period translated into a creative peak, and, if so, how much of this carried onto the present day. I will then look at the female participation in this phenomenon not just in terms of numerical growth of women film directors, admittedly impressive, but only partially reflective of the drastic changes in the modes of production and address effected by the neoliberal policies introduced in the country in the mid 1990s. I will argue that the most decisive contribution brought about by the rise of women in Brazilian filmmaking has been the spread of team work and shared authorship, as opposed to a mere aspiration to the auteur pantheon, as determined by a notoriously male-oriented tradition. Granted, films focusing on female victimisation were rife during the Retomada period and persist to this day, and they have been, and continue to be, invaluable for the understanding of women’s struggles in the country. However, rather than resorting to feminist readings of representational strategies in these films, I will draw attention to other, presentational aesthetic experiments, open to the documentary contingent and the unpredictable real, which, I argue, suspend the pedagogical character of representational narratives. In order to demonstrate that new theoretical tools are needed to understand the gender powers at play in contemporary world cinema, I will, to conclude, analyse an excerpt of the film, Delicate Crime (Crime delicado, Beto Brant, 2006), where team work comes out as a particularly effective female, and feminist, procedure.