Ways of Communication
Film
From the 'famine aesthetic' to the 'favela-pop'
Any nation without films has nearly given up on their dreams, therefore
we have to – despite all shame – continue and must not cease to produce images and dreams
Beyond clichéd images of poorness and violence, film permits an in-depth study of the favela as a model of new forms of convivial cohabitation and social relationships, a vital culture, who is coming from the morro to integrate in the town; the favela as a scene of new forms of political activism via music and culture. The films and their subjects are indicators of stylistic variety and of new problems and actors originating from these locations, the 'new subjects of discourse': samba dancer and samba singer, rapper, baile-funk supporters, for whom music is a political weapon.
The most used scenes by far in Brazilian film are the Sertão and the favela. The Sertão is an extreme setting: dry, hot, nowhere land. It is the sparsely populated interior of North-East Brazil where the bigger part of the favelados are originating from.Both settings are disproportionately afflicted with images and symbols, but at the same time they are 'real' places. Because of their blatant social disproportion of poorness and hopelessness Sertão and favela are seen as 'non-site' of Brazil, as opposed to the modern-positivistic, gorgeous postcard-Brazil. Still, unresolved social problems, utopian visions, and cinematic hopes keep both settings more than [late-breaking? trendy?], as film reviewer Lucia Nagib sees Brazilian film events.
“It is doubtlessly due to the special venue of these films, that mainly drenched in music and colourful
images stay in mind - and no complete plot. The film locations who are occurring in these often
experimental and sometimes savagely mounted documentary and feature films are not clearly laid out
and labyrinthine just like Brazilian favelas. Disparate sequences, desultorily scenes, way-out
perspectives and sounds are reflecting ways of life, which are charcterised not only by overlook
and conduct, but also by certain vehement will to live. The slogan announces: 'Coming through, struggling through, if necessary shooting through'.“