POR5034/FLM5034 - Brazilian Cinema: The Social Tradition - 2022/23

 Why would a Brazilian director depict not the guerrilla Che Guevara but the young doctor developing his social awareness? Walter Salles’s Motorcycle Diaries will set the tone for the discussion of Brazil’s emphasis on the social agenda as its major contribution to world cinema. This course will approach the evolution of this genre, beginning with Cinema Novo, the shift towards the commercial film (Central Station), the development of a new aesthetics (City of God) and of recent radical experimentations. Discussions will include the tensions between aesthetics and ethics, the achievement of the commercial film and of the documentary as social action, and film as a tool for the empowerment of the marginalized.