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.
By:
Guilherme Carréra (University of Westminster London UK)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 718g
ISBN: 9781350203020
ISBN 10: 1350203025
Series: World Cinema
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 16 December 2021
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Figures Acknowledgements Introduction: In search of Brazilian ruins Part One Framing the ruins: From Cinema Novo to contemporary Brazilian documentary 1: A realm for the ruins of Brazil 2: Cinema Novo: A country in crisis 3: Documentary in the wake of Cinema da Retomada Part Two The other side of progress: Cinematic (re)constructions of Brasilia 4: A controversial spatiality: Myth and apartheid 5: Realism under erasure or not quite: New imagery and storytelling 6: The Age of Stone : The uchronic mode of a monument 7: White Out, Black In : Exploding the Third World from a laje point of view Part Three Constructing ruins in Rio de Janeiro: An intermedial visualization of failing projects 8: Tropicalia: An intermedial counterculture 9: The rubble as the legacy: A ruin for the World Cup and the Olympics 10: The Carmen Miranda ruinous spaceship in Tropical Curse 11: A lame-leg architecture: Half-hospital, half-ruin in H U Enigma Part Four The long-standing ruination: Indigenous territory in dispute 12: Setting the ground: Cinema Novo and indigenous representation 13: The Video nas Aldeias case: For an indigenous media to emerge 14: ‘Here, in this scenario of destruction …’: Territory of ruins in Corumbiara 15: 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 ruins Notes References Filmography Index
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).
Reviews for Brazilian Cinema and the Aesthetics of Ruins
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. -- Albert Elduque Busquets, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain This timely addition to existing scholarship in English on Brazilian cinema provides an original and persuasive argument for situating contemporary production within a wider aesthetics of ruin and decay. Both accessible and academically rigorous, this volume will appeal to students and established scholars alike. -- Lisa Shaw, University of Liverpool, UK A densely synthetic and eminently readable capsule overview of Brazilian Cinema filtered through the imagistic-theoretical grid of ruins as a metaphor both for artistic creativity and social devastation. After the celebrated aesthetics of poverty, hunger, and garbage, the book offers a multi-faceted aesthetics of ruination, all in relation to larger themes of indigeneity and modernity. -- Robert Stam, New York University, USA
- Winner of AIM (Association of Moving Image Researchers) Best Monograph Prize 2022 (UK)
- Winner of BAFTSS (British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies) Award for Best First Monograph 2023 (UK)
- Winner of BAFTSS (British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies) Award for Best Monograph 2023 (UK)
