Marked by unconventional creative processes, contemporary productions by black women artists such as Pontes sobre abismos, NoirBLUE and Kbela reveal intersections between languages, devices and formats.
by Heitor Augusto
The black body that performs, fables, and forges futures lies in the very genesis of black cinema. Here, “black cinema” is understood more as a political category than aesthetic, an act marking the presence of black bodies occupying the primordial role in the making of a film: direction. There is, however, room for a broader discussion, one which still needs to be had, to go deeper into what – which works and aesthetics – constitutes Black Cinema.
Alma no olho (Soul in the Eye, 1974), the first film by a black Brazilian director to invite his blackness to the center of the cinematic act, brings Zózimo Bulbul – director, actor, screenwriter and film producer – (re)telling the story of four centuries of black lives in Brazil by means of a single body (his own), a single scene (a studio with an infinite white background) and the absence of dialogue, contrasted with the vibration of the sounds and the soundtrack by John Coltrane. A body in front of a camera communicating a diaspora experience.
Urso de Lata