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ROMS Colloquium
October 12, 2022 @ 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Please join us on Wednesday, October 12th at 3:15 pm in Toy Lounge for the October ROMS colloquium featuring presentations on Race and Brazilian Cinema by Dr. Nilzimar Vieira, Teaching Assistant Professor in Portuguese, and Dr. Pedro Lopes de Almeida, Teaching Assistant Professor in Portuguese.
Below you will find the title and description of the presenters’ work:
- Dr. Nilzimar Vieira, Kbela and the New Generation of Black Brazilian Filmmakers
Despite the large Black population in Brazil, when it comes to the representation of Brazilian people on the movie screen, Afro-Brazilians are still underrepresented. In recent years, a new generation of Black Brazilian filmmakers have been challenging the Brazilian movie scene. They are questioning the Eurocentric norms in cinema and sharing their stories to amplify Afro-Brazilian culture in respect to the greater Brazilian population. Additionally, these filmmakers are strengthening their relationships with other African diasporic communities and scholarship.
- Dr. Pedro Lopes de Almeida, Hair, decoloniality, Netflix, and abolitionism: thinking with Barba, Cabelo & Bigode (A Cut Above, 2022)
In the summer of 2022, Netflix Brazil released Barba, Cabelo & Bigode (A Cut Above, in the international title) in over 180 countries. The film, directed by Rodrigo França and Letícia Prisco, was received with enthusiasm and praise by critics and viewers alike. A wave of support spread through social media, mostly focusing on the diversity of the cast and crew and the positive representation of black communities in the urban periphery. A Cut Above tells the story of Richardsson (Lucas Penteado), a teenager who finishes school and faces the hard decisions of teenage years, most critically among them: choosing a career for himself. Richardsson decides to work at his mother’s hair salon, and the plot presents us with the emotional rollercoasters he must navigate in order to establish himself as a respected hairstylist in the community. Central to the film, hair plays many roles in the Afro-Brazilian community: as an instance of affirmation of black identity and swag, as a vehicle for intergenerational kinship, as a tool of self-fashioning and resistance, all playing against a backdrop of racist discrimination of black hair. Meanwhile, hair is also a protein filament made of keratin. My current research project, drawing inspiration from object-oriented ontologies and practices, looks at fibers as enduring material companions with which one can better understand historical processes, environmental transformation, and social interactions. There are striking affinities between the fibers of hair, optic fiber cables laid in the bottom of the Brazilian shore, Kevlar fiber used in the vests of police, and the vegetable fibers used in the ropes on board of the Portuguese ships carrying enslaved Africans to Brazil. In this brief presentation, thinking through and with Barba, Cabelo & Bigode, I want to ask some questions about the transtemporal permanence of fibers as a key to mobilize a social and aesthetic critique of coloniality, but also to envision possible abolitionist futures.
Please mark your calendar for the last Fall 2022 colloquium:
- November 9 – Elena Peña-Argüeso, Azza Ben Youssef, Dr. Cécile Ruel.
For any questions, please contact the Colloquium organizers, Pina Gemboni (giu22@live.unc.edu) and Parker Brookie (pbrookie@live.unc.edu).