Intersectionality in Contemporary Brazilian Cinema

We're delighted to invite you this Thursday, March 5 to a talk by Bruno Guaraná  from 5:30-6:30pm followed by a reception (with great food!) before the screening of Madame Satã  (Karim Aïnouz, 2002) at 7pm in Blaustein 210.


Description:
Released in 2002, Madame Satã has become a hallmark of contemporary Brazilian cinema for its depiction of a black queer “malandro” in 1930s Rio de Janeiro. In this talk, Bruno Guaraná analyzes how the film demands an intersectional reading by refusing to present the identity of the historical figure at its center as coherent. Through a queer, carnivalesque aesthetic, Madame Satã explores the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality,
culminating in an extra-diegetic emancipation of its protagonist from interlocking oppressions. Released early in a new wave of contemporary Brazilian cinema, the film helped establish a mediatic resistance to exclusionary nationalist discourses that challenge, and even disrupt, the hegemonic order.

Bio:
Bruno Guaraná is a College Core Curriculum Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at the College of Arts & Science. He received his Ph.D. in Cinema Studies from NYU, and his M.A. in Film from Columbia University. His research explores negotiations of cultural citizenship in contemporary Brazilian media through an intersectional approach. Bruno has taught courses in several departments at NYU, including Media, Culture, and Communication, and Cinema Studies, as well as in the Film Department at Brooklyn College, CUNY.