(2020)
by Kênia Freitas
• CORPO CRÍTICO •
Dates: October 22nd, 23rd, 27th e 30th, 2020
Time: 2:30pm to 5:00pm
Venue: Online
Workload: 10 hours
Attendees: 10
CRITIQUE EXPERIMENTATIONS FOR A COMMITTED CINEMA
Presentation
How does one think about the work of critique amidst the health, economic and political crises shattering us? How does one take part in meetings and share thoughts through the multiple screens both connecting and framing us? If film criticism can be this endless conversation involving films, filmmakers and audiences, how does such criticism (re)position itself in film festivals at home? These are questions that we propose as shared concerns for the Critical Body (online) meetings during the FestCurtasBH 2020.
Facing the wide open uncertainties and precariousness brought about pandemically, we propose this theoretical-practical workshop as a way of sharing experiments on film criticism. We follow Denise Ferreira da Silva's thoughts and her Black Feminist Poetics in order to think about cinema, films and film criticism as engaged parts of an engaged world. A world in which everything is permanently connected, and from which images and cinema are never disconnected. Therefore, this year's Critical Body theoretical-practical meetings invite workshop participants to develop film criticism experiments committed to and engaged with this year's FestCurtasBH programs.
Methodological approach
Classes will be theoretical and practical. The discussions will be based on references picked for each meeting and on a set of films shown at the festival and previously agreed on by both the professor and participants (with the exception of the 1st meeting). In each class, a key question will be used to trigger the debate and the film criticism experiments.
WORKSHOP SESSIONS PLAN
Session 1. Critical displacements for a committed cinema
What are the theoretical and practical possibilities for conceiving an idea of/ with cinema that simultaneously engages it and engages itself to the world?
References:
DOS SANTOS, Matheus Araujo. Atravessando abismos em direção a um Cinema Implicado: negridade, imagem e desordem. Logos, [S.l.], v. 27, n. 1, jun. 2020.
GALINDO, Bruno. “Crônicas de Ouro Preto #2: Travessia em Vera Cruz”. In: Cine Festivais.
Available on: https://cinefestivais.com.br/cronicas-de-ouro-preto-2-travessia-em-vera-cruz/
What we are talking about (Ana Pi, 2016).
Available on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQP3LR1nIHg&feature=emb_title&ab_channel=AnaPi
* * *
Session 2. Black Feminist Poetics
Can virtuality, transubstantiation, transversality and traversability, as guides for imagination, liberate cinema thought from a criticism practice which is linked to modern philosophy?
References:
ALMEIDA, Carol. “Contra a velha cinefilia: uma perspectiva feminista de filiação ao cinema”. In: Fora de Quadro.
Available on: https://foradequadro.com/2017/09/19/contra-a-velha-cinefilia-uma-perspectiva-feminista-de-filiacao-ao-cinema/
FERREIRA DA SILVA, Denise. A Dívida Impagável. Tradução: Amílcar Packer e Pedro Daher. São Paulo: Oficina de Imaginação Política e Living Commons, 2019. [“Introdução: (Di)Ante(s) do Texto” e “Para uma Poética Negra Feminista: A Busca/Questão da Negridade Para o (Fim do) Mundo”]
SMITH, Cauleen. “COVID MANIFESTO”. In: DE CUIR, JR, Greg. RADICAL ACTS OF CARE: ACT II.
Available on: https://mediacityfilmfestival.com/exhibitions/radical-acts-of-care-act-ii/
* * *
Session 3. Concerning the opacity in films and film criticism
What discursive strategies may be tried out on films and film criticism in order to dismantle the traps of transparency/visibility/representation?
References:
FREITAS, Kênia. “Afrofabulações e opacidade: as estratégias de criação do documentário negro brasileiro contemporâneo”. In: RICARDO, Laécio (org.).Pensar o documentário: textos para um debate. Recife: Ed. UFPE, 2020.
GLISSANT, Édouard. “Pela Opacidade”. In: Poétique de la relation. Revista Criação & Crítica, n. 1, p. 53-55, 2008. Tradução: Henrique de Toledo Groke e Keila Prado Costa.
ROCHA, Lorenna. “Como podemos olhar (e nos relacionar com) a diferença? – New York, just another city (2019) e Teko Haxy – ser imperfeita (2018)”. In Sessão Aberta.
* * *
Session 4. Fabulation: speculation and experimentation.
How can film criticism fantasize/speculate/experiment/perform for and against cinema?
References:
FREITAS, Kênia. “Fabulações críticas em curta-metragens negros brasileiros”. In: Multiplot.
Available on: http://multiplotcinema.com.br/2019/03/fabulacoes-criticas-em-curta-metragens-negros-brasileiros/
HARTMAN, Saidiya. Vênus em dois atos. Tradução não-oficial para a cena Anastácia como Vênus de Yhuri Cruz. Com Caju Bezerra, Iagor Perez e Jade Zimbra.
MOMBAÇA, Jota; MATTIUZZI, Musa Michelle. “Carta à leitora preta do fim dos tempos”. in: FERREIRA DA SILVA, Denise. A Dívida Impagável. Tradução: Amílcar Packer e Pedro Daher. São Paulo: Oficina de Imaginação Política e Living Commons, 2019.
MENTORSHIP
Kênia Freitas is a film critic and curator, who researches Afrofuturism and Black Cinema. She did post-doctoral internships (CAPES/PNPD) at graduate programs in Communication at UCB (2015-2018) and Unesp (2018-2020). She holds a PhD from the School of Communication of UFRJ, in the field of Communication Technologies and Aesthetics (2015). She curated the film exhibitions "Afrofuturismo: cinema e música em uma diáspora intergaláctica", "A Magia da Mulher Negra" and "Diretoras Negras no Cinema brasileiro". She is a film critic for the Multiplot! website and conducts courses and workshops on Black cinema, afrofuturism and fabulations.