Documentary Filmmaking in Contemporary Brazil

D. West, CHOICE Highly recommended.

Robert Stam, New York University An exhilarating work, Gustavo Furtado's wide-ranging Documentary Filmmaking in Brazil, heralds a bright future for Brazilian film criticism. Furtado gives us fresh insights even about films whose meaning had presumably been exhaustively covered. Especially impressive is his sensitivity to the issues raised by indigenous media and 'first contact' films. The mobilization of theory for purposes of close analysis is simply brilliant.

Ana Lopaz, Tulane University Addressing both contemporary documentary production in Brazil and documentary cinema in general, Furtado uses the concept of the archive to explore the intersections of memory, representation and power. Skillfully weaving sophisticated theoretical arguments with contextual and detailed film analyses, the book is a pleasure to read. It makes a crucially significant intervention in Brazilian film studies and will also become an essential companion to any discussion of contemporary documentary cinema.

Lcia Nagib, Professor of Film, University of Reading This book is eminently political. It tackles documentary filmmaking as a way of interfering in and changing society. Furtado has devised a tremendously original and effective method of understanding documentary making in Brazil as the construction of a huge archive where memory, history and culture combine in order to provide a reliable programme for a better future. For the first time, in this book, indigenous production is given pride of place alongside consecrated masterpieces, such as Eduardo Coutinho's 20 Years Later, Joo Moreira Salles's Santiago, and Adirley Queirs' recent documentary sci-fi Black Out, White In. With breathtaking erudition, attentive to both the detail and the broader picture, Furtado has given us a riveting and compelling vision of Brazil today. Brazilian politicians would have a lot to learn from it!

Gustavo Procopio Furtado is Assistant Professor of Romance Studies, Latin American Studies, and Arts of the Moving Image at Duke University where he teaches classes on Latin American literature and cinema. His research focuses on audiovisual production with special attention to documentary and ethnographic film traditions and to the intersections between aesthetics and politics.

Acknowledgements Introduction PART I - ETHNOGRAPHIES OF THE INDIGENOUS 1. Feverish Archives, Feverish Films: Ethnographic Documentary and Crisis at Amazonian Contact Zones 2. Reparative Mediations:Indigeneity, Videomaking, and the Future of the Ethnographic Archive PART II - LAW, EVIDENCE, CAPTURE 3. Scenes of Capture in the City: Documentary on the Margins of Social and Archival Visibilities 4. Tactics of the Invisible, Shadow Archives:Resistance and Filmmaking on the Outskirts of Brasilia PART III - PRIVATE LIFE (GOING PUBLIC) 5. Homes, Archives, and Archons: Reworking the "Home Mode" in the Contemporary Documentary 6. The Melancholy Subject of History: Intimate Films and the Inheritance of Postdictatorship Memory Epilogue Filmography Bibliography Index