Ecological Futurism, Ambika P3 and University of Westminster Film TV and Moving Image MA present: Geographies of Ruins in Contemporary Brazilian Cinema, screening and conversation
15:00 Screening of Hu Enigma (Pedro Urano and Joana Traub Csekö, 2011)
16:30 Conversation between Dr. Guilherme Carréra (joining via Zoom) and Dr. Mariana Cunha
In recent years, several unconventional documentaries have been released portraying distinct geographies of contemporary Brazil, which articulate critiques of the notions of progress and (under)development in the country. This event will unpack ideas around urban and ecological ruins present in recent films, which offer radical depictions of the afterlives of (neo)colonisation and neoliberalisation in the context of Brazil.
There will be a screening of Pedro Urano’s and Joana Traub Csekö’s 2011 film Hu Enigma. The film is a cinematic portrait of the University Hospital in Rio de Janeiro, a building that is part public hospital and part ruin serving as a metaphor for utopia and dystopia. The screening will be followed by a conversation.
Speaker Bios:
Guilherme Carréra is a postdoctoral researcher at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He holds a PhD in Film awarded by the University of Westminster, CREAM, with a project sponsored by the CAPES Foundation (Ministry of Education, Brazil).
His book Brazilian Cinema and the Aesthetics of Ruins (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021) examines imagery of ruins in contemporary Brazilian cinema and considers these representations in the context of Brazilian society. The book looks at three groups of 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).
Mariana Cunha is a Lecturer in Screen Studies at the University of Westminster. She has a PhD with a focus on Brazilian Cinema and a MA in Cultural and Critical Studies from Birkbeck, University of London. Her recent research addresses the relationship between cinematic affect, spatial practices, and ecological visualities in Latin American cinema. She co-edited the books Space and Subjectivity in Contemporary Brazilian Cinema (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) and Human Rights, Social Movements and Activism in Contemporary Latin American Cinema (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).
This event is free and drinks will be served – please get your entry tickets here.
Presented by the Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM), Ecological Futurism, Ambika P3 and the University of Westminster Film TV and Moving Image MA
