Researching women in silent cinema: new findings and perspectives

This anthology exposes the richness and variety of interests that motivate feminist film research today. Exploring women’s contribution to silent cinema, scholars from across the globe address questions of performance, nationality, industry, technology, labor, and theory of feminist historiography. The volume builds on the thematic, methodological, and material diversity that characterized earlier efforts in women’s film history, and the originating context of the sixth Women and the Silent Screen conference (Bologna, 2010). Much emphasis is given to the transitional period of silent cinema (1910s to the early 1920s), which emerges as the field where feminist film scholars are beginning to claim their own theoretical and historical ‘place’. While giving a new impetus to the idea of transitional cinema, the collected essays also illuminate the importance of film’s transnational circulation. Questions of nation and nationhood, and women’s inclusion or exclusion within these terms, are examined in connection to issues of cultural globalization. How did American serial queens impact early Chinese film? How did the variety stage accommodate American films in Rio de Janeiro? Along what lines might we discuss women filmmakers who literally toured the world? These are just some of the issues that are discussed in the volume. Each investigation prompts us into distinct acts of cultural contextualization. A particular focus on acting and the agency of the actress is shared across the volume. The fundamental figure of the actress links multiple threads of scholarship, traversing different films and national cinemas. Alice Guy, Asta Nielsen, Florence Turner, Lois Weber, Mary Pickford, Esfir’ Shub, Pearl White, Vera Karalli, Aleksandra Khokhlova, Elsa Lanchester, Louise Fazenda, Sarah Bernhardt, Gemma Bellincioni, Angelina Buracci, Yin Mingzhu, Leni Riefensthal: these are but some of the names that are encountered across the essays in the collection. New findings are exposed and new research perspectives are opened through these and other figures, allowing us to uncover original ways of thinking about women’s visibility and agency on film.

O cinema brasileiro ainda queima o filme? Re-estudando atitudes relativas a filmes nacionais

This text has the objective to compare attitudes and opinions of undergraduation students about Brazilian movies, evaluated in 1991 and 2003. The research was motivated by the author's perceptions that the changes occurred in the public cultural stimulus policy, at the end of 80's and beginning of 90's drove the national productions to a significant quality improvement, allowing them to work in conditions to compete in the Brazilian market without needing to take any advantage of law or policy for minimum projection share to national movies. The results attested a significant enhancement in the evaluation by the respondents of Brazilian movie production.

Imagens do Brasil: o Cinema Novo e as metamorfoses da identidade nacional

Este trabalho tem como objetivo a análise da política cultural de cinema e sua relação com a identidade nacional, que se desenvolveu entre o final dos anos cinquenta e o início dos anos oitenta. Os principais agentes desse processo são os cineastas vinculados ao Cinema Novo e o Estado autoritário, implantado a partir de 1964, tendo como pano de fundo o intenso processo de modernização sofrido pela sociedade brasileira no período. Dentre as fontes utilizadas, destaca-se a produção cinematográfica do período, importante para compreender as ideias formuladas sobre a identidade nacional e as contradições inerentes a esse processo. No primeiro capítulo, analisamos a gênese do Cinema Novo, reconhecendo-o como movimento político e cultural, estabelecendo suas redes de sociabilidade e caracterizando seus aspectos estéticos e políticos comuns aos cineastas que dele faziam parte. Esta análise considerou três momentos distintos: o primeiro, entre 1955 e 1964, quando ocorreu a gênese do Cinema Novo; o segundo, entre 1964 e 1968, quando o Cinema Novo conheceu seu apogeu e se consolidou como proposta política e cultural; e o terceiro, entre 1969 e 1973, quando a proposta estética se esgotou, dando espaço às articulações políticas e às propostas individuais que caracterizaram esse movimento cultural até o início dos anos oitenta. No segundo capítulo, o objeto principal da análise é a ação do Estado autoritário, estabelecido a partir de 1964, no campo da cultura. Realizamos um retrospecto das intervenções do Estado brasileiro nesse campo até 1964, discorremos sobre a postura do Estado autoritário em relação à produção cultural e destacamos a Política Nacional de Cultura, proposta no final de 1975, a principal referência para se compreender o processo de construção da identidade nacional em tempos de transição. No terceiro capítulo, analisaremos especificamente a política cultural cinematográfica a partir de 1974, seus pontos em comum com a Política Nacional de Cultura e suas contradições em relação à ação do Estado autoritário na área cultural e ao processo de modernização pelo qual passou a sociedade brasileira. Por meio dessa análise, procuramos entender a forma como cinemanovistas e representantes dos órgãos oficiais da área cultural perceberam a gestação de uma política cultural de cinema que contemplasse as necessidades desses tempos de transição e fornecesse os elementos para a construção da identidade nacional. No quarto capítulo, analisamos a trajetória de Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, como intelectual cinemanovista, profundamente influenciado pelos ideais modernistas dos anos vinte e trinta, e crítico do processo de modernização autoritária posto em prática a partir de 1964. Consideramos a trajetória e a obra desse cineasta como paradigmáticas, tanto no que se refere às complexas relações políticas e culturais desenvolvidas pelo Cinema Novo, quanto às profundas transformações vividas pela sociedade brasileira no período. Entre 1955 e 1982, desenvolveram-se várias propostas políticas para a área cultural, destacando-se duas: aquela formulada e apresentada pelo Cinema Novo e aquela referente à intervenção do Estado autoritário nessa área. A atuação dos intelectuais cinemanovistas e o diálogo estabelecido entre estes e seus interlocutores, representantes do Estado autoritário no campo da cultura, possibilitaram a construção de uma identidade nacional em tempos de transição, corroborando o processo de redemocratização e construindo novas formas de se ver, analisar e compreender a sociedade brasileira.

Hemeroteca digital temática: socialização da informação em cinema

MEDEIROS, Rildeci; MELO, Erica S. F.; NASCIMENTO, M. S. Hemeroteca digital temática: socialização da informação em cinema.In:SEMINÁRIO NACIONAL DE BIBLIOTECAS UNIVERSITÁRIAS,15.,2008,São Paulo. Anais eletrônicos... São Paulo:CRUESP,2008. Disponível em: http://www.sbu.unicamp.br/snbu2008/anais/site/pdfs/3018.pdf

A mídia dos outros somos nós: a experiência audiovisual do Ponto de Cultura Cinema para Todos

This research aims to identify the process of appropriation of audio visual (in digital video) for collective symbolic production (participatory video practice that expresses popular culture) in a socio-cultural context where the minorities are. Therefore, we based this study on the students‟ experience of the film and video workshops held by Cinema para Todos (Culture Point Cine for All), in Natal, RN. Culture Point is the basis of the project Programa Nacional de Cultura, Educação e Cidadania Cultura Viva (National Program of Culture, Education and Citizenship - Living Culture) of the Brazilian Ministry of Culture. In 2010, the Cine for All developed three film and video workshops in the state of Rio Grande do Norte (Northeastern of Brazil), in the municipalities of Açu, Lajes and São Gonçalo do Amarante, within a public policy project of socio-cultural inclusion. These three workshops are the focus of this empirical investigation. To support the analysis of this research we consider that the spaces of workshops are sites of the social practices origin, assuming they show the development of the changes of actions that generate new practices. In this socio-cultural context the students as interlocutors process the communicative culture mediation, where come from the logics of action (using digital video) to become a mediatic practice (video auto ethnographic). With the overall goal set and the field of investigative action delimited we considered the methodology of case study suitable for the observation of the object, because it is a phenomenon of modernity, occurring in a context of real life and with little or no control over events. Participant observation and interviews was also applied to this case study. The analytical theoretical support comes from the notion of mediation by Jesús Martín-Barbero and the concept of habitus by Pierre Bourdieu. The research found that a new way of communicating has been developing by this social group, and this reflects the technological change experienced by them. The auto ethnographic videos, short movies, reveal an allegorical trial of the mainstream media, because while they use the mainstream format, they rework the aesthetic, but without revising the history, in fact they proposing to retell the history of themselves full of colorful details and with richness of their forgotten popular culture.

Representações da periferia no cinema brasileiro: do neorrealismo ao hiper-realismo

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

O projeto de criação e a implantação da ANCINE - Agência Nacional de Cinema: caminhos da política para o fomento e a proteção dos audiovisuais no Brasil (2000-2006)

Pós-graduação em História - FCLAS

Entrincheirados no tempo: a FEB e os ex-combatentes no cinema documentário

Pós-graduação em História - FCHS

The Representation of Motherhood in Polish Cinema

The project aimed to analyse representations of motherhood in Polish cinema as a special case of a more general system within the representation of women. It concentrated on the image of the Polish Mother created during the 19th century in Polish culture under the influence of specific political, social and religious factors. Ms. Ostrowska's initial hypothesis was that this symbolic image became one of the most stable elements in Polish cinema and as her research revealed, it was valuable for the preservation of national identity but nevertheless a fiercely constraining model for Polish femininity. In order to fully understand the nature of this persistent image it was initially necessary to related it to broader contexts and issues in representation. These included the image of the Polish Mother within general mythological structures (using the notion of myth in the Barthesian sense). Following her initial research Ms. Ostrowska felt that it was most appropriate to view the myth of the Polish Mother as a dominant ideological structure in the discourse of motherhood within Polish culture. An analysis of the myth of the Polish Mother can provide an insight into how Polish society sees itself at different periods in time and how a national identity was constructed in relation to particular ideological demands stemming from concrete historical and political situations. The analysis of the film version of this myth also revealed some aspects of the national character of Polish cinema. There the image of woman has become enshrined as the "eternal feminine", with virtues which are inevitably derived directly from Catholicism, particularly in relation to the networks of meanings around the central figure of Mary, Mother of God. In 19th century Poland these were linked with patriotic values and images of woman became part of the defence of the very idea of Poland and Polishness. After World War Two, this religious-political image system was adapted to the demands of the new communist ideology. The possibility of manipulating the ideological dimensions of the myth of the Polish Mother is due to the very nature of the image, which as a symbol of civil religion had been able to function independently of any particular state or church institution. Although in communist ideology the stress was on the patriotic aspect of the myth, its pronounced religious aspect was also transmitted, consciously or not, in the denotation process, this being of great significance in the viewer's response to the female character. This appropriation of elements derived from the national patriotic tradition into the discourse of communist ideology was a very efficient strategy to establish the illusion of continuity in national existence, which was supposed to convince society of the rightness of the new political situation. The analysis of films made in the post-war period showed the persistence of this discourse on motherhood in a range of cinematic texts regardless of the changing political situation. Ms. Ostrowska claims that the stability of this discursive formation is to a certain extent the result of the mythological aspect of the mother figure. This mythological structure also belongs to the ideology of Romanticism which in general continues to prevail in Polish cultural discourse as a meta-language of national community. The analysis of the films confirmed the hypothesis of the Polish Mother as a myth-sign whose signifier is stable whereas the signified depends on the specific historical conditions in which it is set. Therefore in the famous propaganda documentary Kobiety naszych dni (Women of Our Days, 1951) by Jan Zelnik, and in other films made after the October 1956 "thaw" it functions as an "empty sign. She concludes that it would be difficult to deny that the myth of the Polish Mother has offered Polish women a special role in national life, granting them a high moral position in the social, hierarchy. However the processes of idealisation involved have resulted in a deprivation of her subjectivity and the right to decide about her own life. This idealisation also served to strengthen traditional patriarchal structures through this set of female obligations to the mother land. In Polish ideology it is not a man who demands sacrifice from a woman but the motherland, which, deprived of the institutions of male power for nearly 150 years, had functioned as a feminine structure. That is why oppressive aspects of the myth have been obscured for so long. While Polish women were doubtless able to accept the constrictions because of their sense of national duty and any misgivings were overridden by the argument of the cause, it is important to recognise that the strength of these constructions, compounded by the ways in which they spoke of and continue to speak of a certain perfection, make them persist into contemporary Poland. Poland is however no longer embattled and the signs that made these meanings are potentially empty. This space for meaning will be and is already being contested and increasingly colonised by current western models of femininity. Ms. Ostrowska's final question is whether this will help to prevent a possible resentful victimisation of the silent and noble Polish Mother.

A linguagem audiovisual do cinema como elemento integrador da arte e ciência na formação cultural dos professores de ciências e matemática

This work aims to study about the importance of cinema for cultural and professional training of teachers of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. The educational potential of cinema is emphasizing by different authors, which also reveal the teachers' training gap in this issue (media). In this study, we defend the audiovisual language of cinema as an integrating element of Arts and Science for cultural and professional training of teachers. This subject has been developed by different authors, in which the emphasis has been the importance of intelligent dialogue with the world. Specifically, the training of science teachers and mathematics, by the approach of Cinema in its formation, It envisions the possibility of minimizing the dichotomy between humanistic and scientific training, already much discussed by some researchers. Educational products contribute to an effective experience and reflection on the cultural and educational role of the Seventh Art. Considering the Cinema as a possible "bridge" between the two cultures (scientific culture and humanistic culture) and promoting ownership of audiovisual language in teacher training It was accomplished the I Exhibition - Cultural Spring: Cinema and Science Education in UFRN. The production of the booklet "Topics of History, Language and Art of Cinema for Science and Mathematics Teachers," and its application in a short course in the XXI National Symposium on Physics Teaching also aimed to contribute to the approximation of Science and Art in training teachers.

Mockumentary as postnationalism: national identity in 'A Day Without a Mexican' by Sergio Arau

The turn to neoliberalism in the 1990s proved decisive for Mexico, as the NAFTA project embraced by the Salinas administration entailed a re-definition of national identity, defined since the revolution as mestizo, Catholic and especially as the Other to the United States. And just as cinema was in those days a crucial discourse for this particular construction of the identity, it was in the 1990s equally instrumental to its redefinition, which largely focused on the role of migrants to the US, presented even as supplementary in the Derridean sense. In 1992, as part of these efforts, Sergio Arau directed a mockumentary which in 2004 became a feature film, ‘A Day Without a Mexican’. As would befit more the seriousness of a documentary than the excess and parody of mockumentary, the stated aim in both was to advance a social agenda, arguing the case for immigrant labour and for Mexican presence in the US more generally. The film charts what would happen in California were all Latino immigrants to suddenly disappear, arguing chaos would ensue. Given the link between cinema and modernity and the relevance of cinema for the nation as an alternative public sphere, this chapter looks at the implications of choosing mockumentary, taken by many to be a paradigmatic postmodern and hybrid form, to discuss the hybridisation of national identity in a transnational film, in the present age of globalisation.

Realism and national identity in 'Y Tu Mamá También': an audience perspective

When referring to cinema and its emancipatory potential, realism, like Plato’s pharmakon, has signified both illness and cure, poison and medicine. On the one hand, realism is regarded as the main feature of so-called classical cinema, inherently conservative and thoroughly ideological, its main raison d’être being to reify and make a particular version of the status quo believable and to pass it out as ‘reality’ (Burch, 1990; MacCabe, 1974). On the other, realism has also been interpreted as a quest for truth and social justice, as in the positivist ethos that informs documentary (Zavattini, 1953). Even in the latter sense, however, the extent to which realism has served colonizing ends when used to investigate the ‘truth’ of the Other has also been noted, rendering the form profoundly suspicious (Chow, 2007, p. 150). For realism has been a Western form of representation, one that can be traced back to the invention of perspective in painting and that peaked with the secular worldview brought about by the Enlightenment. And like realism, the nation state too is a product of the Enlightenment, nationalism being, as it were, a secular replacement for the religious - that is enchanted or fantastic - worldview. In this way, realism, cinema and nation are inextricably linked, and equally strained under the current decline of the Enlightenment paradigm. This chapter looks at Y tu Mamá También by Alfonso Cuarón (2001), a highly successful road movie with documentary features, to explore the ways in which realism, cinema and nation interact with each other in the present conditions of ‘globalization’ as experienced in Mexico. The chapter compares and contrasts various interpretations of the role of realism in this film put forward by critics and scholars and other discourses about it circulating in the media with actual ways of audience engagement with it.

National Cinemas and Non-Hegemonic Languages. The Invisibility of Galician Language Facing the Policies for Cultural Diversity

In the spirit of the proposals of the Agenda 2020 about the structural role of cinema in the configuration of the European identities, this article highlights the significance of the national cinemas in non-hegemonic languages in the conformation of a diverse European culture. Following this perspective, we use Galician cinema as a case study in which we analyze the presence (or more precisely the absence) of the Galician language in the original version in the feature films released between 2008 and 2012.This proposal is hosted by the I+D+I project eDCINEMA: “Towards the European Digital Space. The role of small cinemas in original version” (Ref. CSO2012-35784) financed by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain.

Hemeroteca digital temática: socialização da informação em cinema

MEDEIROS, Rildeci; MELO, Erica S. F.; NASCIMENTO, M. S. Hemeroteca digital temática: socialização da informação em cinema.In:SEMINÁRIO NACIONAL DE BIBLIOTECAS UNIVERSITÁRIAS,15.,2008,São Paulo. Anais eletrônicos... São Paulo:CRUESP,2008. Disponível em: http://www.sbu.unicamp.br/snbu2008/anais/site/pdfs/3018.pdf

Hemeroteca digital temática: socialização da informação em cinema

MEDEIROS, Rildeci; MELO, Erica S. F.; NASCIMENTO, M. S. Hemeroteca digital temática: socialização da informação em cinema.In:SEMINÁRIO NACIONAL DE BIBLIOTECAS UNIVERSITÁRIAS,15.,2008,São Paulo. Anais eletrônicos... São Paulo:CRUESP,2008. Disponível em: http://www.sbu.unicamp.br/snbu2008/anais/site/pdfs/3018.pdf