A questão social em cinco longas-metragens nacionais (1998-2019)

Abstract

The present work discusses the relationship between National Cinema and the Social Issue in Contemporary Brazil. Its objective is to identify the themes and approaches through which the social inequalities that afflict Brazilian reality have been interpreted and/or represented in feature films that have caught the attention of the public and specialized critics over two decades. Five films were analyzed: Central do Brasil (1998), Abril Despedaçado (2001), Cidade de Deus (2002), O Som ao Redor (2012), and Pureza (2019). This historical series, beginning in 1998 and ending in 2019, encompasses cinematic productions inscribed in the Cinema da Retomada and Contemporary National Cinema. The identification of cinema as an analytical resource is based on understanding it as a historical agent not limited to the realm of representation, as it carries the possibility of stimulating a critical-reflexive analysis of social reality. Since the 1960s, in particular, trends in Brazilian cinema have assumed an important role in the debate surrounding the major themes of Brazilian social formation, such as the colonial heritage, the agrarian issue, racism, patriarchy, regional inequalities, the contradictions of urban-industrial development, the social condition, and the resistances of the working classes, among others. Referenced in the Marxistinspired critical social theory, the investigation is qualitative and articulated bibliographic research and documentary research. Approaching the specialized literature on cinema, the aim was to understand the movements, history, and trends processed in National Cinema. Concerning the debate on the Social Issue, an interlocution was carried out with Brazilian authors, emphasizing the debate within Brazilian Social Work in its process of critical renewal. As for documentary research, data from official bodies were consulted and analyzed to illustrate expressions of the “social issue” in Brazil. In the end, it was possible to identify how the analyzed feature films address the “social issue” and the intrinsic relationship of this approach with Brazilian socio-historical formation.