Amérika: Gestos Cinematográficos para Reencantar o Mundo
Film screenings and discussions cycle. 2023-2026
Hangar – Artistic Research Center
A proposal by Raquel Schefer
Experimental cinema and ethnographic cinema have historically been considered autonomous practices. In Experimental Ethnography: The Work of Film in the Age of Video, Catherine Russell explores their intersections and examines the role of ethnography in the “renewal” of experimental cinema. The screening and discussion cycle Amérika: Gestos Cinematográficos para Reencantar o Mundo delves into these intersections between experimental cinema and ethnography through a mapping of cinematic practices and gestures historically and contemporarily developed in Latin America.
From the films of Bruce Baillie and Chick Strand made in Mexico to Amazonian cinema, which transcends and displaces the intersection between experimental cinema and ethnography, and from the work of ethnographer Jorge Prelorán to that of experimental filmmaker Bruno Varela, as well as the pioneering video art pieces by Juan Downey and the “ethnographic poems” (Nicole Brenez) of Raymonde Carasco and Régis Hébraud, the thirteen sessions of this three-year cycle propose a representative path of the visual and epistemological diversity of the Latin American continent. The program also focuses on modes of production and distribution, cataloging various approaches to the decolonization of vision, representations, and the very practice of filmmaking.
In the second module of the cycle, Bruno Varela will present and discuss his films El Monolito (2019) and El Prototipo (2022) on November 24 and will lead a public workshop on fitograms the following afternoon.
This program is part of the Hangar CIA research program for 2023-2026. The session is included in the screening and discussion cycle Amérika: Gestos Cinematográficos para Reencantar o Mundo, curated by Raquel Schefer.
This structure is funded by the Portuguese Republic – Ministry of Culture / Directorate-General for the Arts.
