{"id":999,"date":"2024-03-20T19:17:53","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T23:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/?p=999"},"modified":"2024-03-20T19:17:53","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T23:17:53","slug":"ursula-munoz-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/2024\/03\/20\/ursula-munoz-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Ursula Mu\u00f1oz S."},"content":{"rendered":"

Ursula Mu\u00f1oz S.<\/strong> is a critic, journalist and MFA candidate at Boston University\u2019s College of Communication. Harboring a special interest in hispanic and lusophone media, she is currently completing her graduate thesis on political dissent in 21-st century Venezuelan genre films. Previously, her reporting on Puerto Rico\u2019s uptick in transfemicides was <\/span>recognized<\/span><\/a> by Florida\u2019s Society of Professional Journalists as some of the state\u2019s best coverage of LGBTQ+ issues in 2021 and 2022.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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Review of Cannibalizing Queer: Brazilian Cinema from 1970 to 2015<\/em>\u00a0by Jo\u00e3o Nemi Neto<\/h3>\n

With the increased visibility of LGBTQ+ communities across the globe, queer and trans media is arguably more prescient than ever before. Brazil is no exception: from the gritty realism of Hector Bab\u00e9nco\u2019s Pixote<\/em> (1980) to the genre-bending fun of Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutras\u2019 Good Manners <\/em>(2017), on-screen depictions of queer and trans stories are rich and varied. As in the United States however, the mainstream success and critical appraisal of relatively inexplicit crowdpleasers considered \u201csafe\u201d for heterosexual audiences such as Daniel Ribeiro\u2019s charming but chaste coming-of-age rom-com The Way He Looks <\/em>(2014), raises the question of whether visibility alone is enough to be warranted as groundbreaking anymore. While it\u2019s easy to claim respectability politics to be a thing of the past, Brazilian LGBTQ+ films from previous decades may suggest otherwise. As such, queer film canons\u2014like any other canon\u2014are worth questioning when we consider the uplifting of normative works at the expense of subversive media by and about sexual minorities and deviants.<\/p>\n

With Cannibalizing Queer<\/em>, Jo\u00e3o Nemi Neto proposes a new lineage to the study of contemporary Brazilian cinema by tracing its origins to Brazilian Modernism and the 20th-century Antropofagia movement, calling for a new framework for understanding the country\u2019s cinematic portrayals of sexual dissidents. Beginning in 1928 with the publishing of poet Oswald de Andrade\u2019s Manifesto Antrop\u00f3fago<\/em>, Antropofagia consisted of the conceptual and self-conscious \u201ccannibalizing\u201d of foreign and domestic ideas and influences, and mixing them with Brazilian culture to produce unique cultural works. A senior lecturer at Columbia University\u2019s Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures whose work focuses on queer theory and pedagogy, Brazilian culture and visual media, Nemi Neto is able to bring into \u201cinterdisciplinary conversation\u201d the fields of cinema studies, Brazilian modernism and queer theory, making the case for Antropofagia as inherently queer\u2026in the broadest of senses. Using a definition of queer that challenges \u201cnormativity\u201d (both heterosexual and homosexual), but also social class and racial divisions,\u201d Nemi Neto then identifies anthropophagi and queerness as equal factors in the development of Brazil\u2019s LGBTQ+ filmic output.[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Nemi Neto constructs Cannibalizing Queer <\/em>in five chapters and two \u201ctrailers\u201d which act as introductions to chapters two and four. Chapter 1 establishes a theoretical background for what follows, revealing the complicated history of antrop\u00f3fagos<\/em> bringing to light indigenous social practices as an important part of the culture\u2014often through aberrant stereotyping. As a marginal and therefore \u201ctransgressive\u201d figure, the indigenous body is culturally queer and \u201cthus embedded in the very idea of Antropofagia\u201d.[2]<\/sup><\/a> Chapter 2 discusses the film Orgy or: the Man Who Gave Birth<\/em> (1970) from Jo\u00e3o Silv\u00e9rio Trevisan, an acknowledged scholar, writer and LGBTQ+ activist and the author of Perverts in Paradise<\/em> (1986), seminal text on homosexuality in Brazil.[3]<\/sup><\/a> Nemi Neto analyzes this film in conversation with Julia Kristeva\u2019s theory of abjection and Silviano Santiago\u2019s notion of temporality. Chapter 3 focuses on the representation of HIV\/AIDS in Brazilian cinema, using Fauzi Mansour\u2019s AIDS, the Furor of Sex<\/em> (1985), David Cardoso\u2019s\u00a0 I Have AIDS<\/em> (1985) and S\u00e9rgio Bianchi’s Romance<\/em> (1988) as case studies. What\u2019s most notable here is the author\u2019s situating of these films in popular culture. All three belong to the three most profitable genres of Brazilian cinema during the 1980s\u2014pornography, porno-chanchada<\/em> (a classic Brazilian genre which imbued elements of the traditional musical with eroticism) and marginal \u201cauteur\u201d melodrama, respectively. Likewise, this chapter draws on Kristeva\u2019s theory of abjection to decode stigmas of shame and revulsion attached to AIDS for effeminate gay males during the 1980s. Chapter 4 continues the theme of effeminacy, analyzing Tatiana Issa and Raphael Alvarez\u2019s award-winning 2009 documentary Dzi Croquettes<\/em>, which chronicles the stage performances of a group of cross-dressing artists during the 1970s. Finally, Chapter 5 focuses on Karim A\u00efnouz\u2019s Madame Sat\u00e3<\/em> (2002) and Hilton Lacerda\u2019s Tatuagem<\/em> (2013)\u2014both queer period films which focus on performance. Tatuagem <\/em>is notable in that it situates itself in the Tropical\u00eda movement of the 1970s, directly referencing Antropofagia\u2019s appropriation of the carnivalesque by focusing on a fictional avant-garde theater group subversive protests during the country\u2019s military dictatorship. Madame Sat\u00e3 <\/em>deals with the real-life Jo\u00e3o Francisco dos Santos, a drag queen and local legend who \u201cdefied the norms of his time.\u201d[4]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

With his new book, Nemi Neto breaks new ground in Brazilian cinema studies, offering a fresh and thorough interdisciplinary study to shed light on a key cultural movement in Brazilian history whose influence on queer Brazilian cinema has historically been under-discussed. Most importantly, the author\u2019s study of this movement does not serve as a hagiography of its proponents\u2014rather, it admires Antropofagia\u2019s transgressions of hegemonic social norms while also problematizing the white colonial elite which appropriated indigenous cultures and languages during the movement\u2019s inception. It can be argued that white intellectuals\u2019 contrasting of modernity (which Andrade believed \u201cmakes civilization sad\u201d) to their own utopian notions of pre-colonized Brazil patronized native Brazilian populations by simplifying their realities.[5]<\/sup><\/a> In line with Antropofagia\u2019s referential tendency, some works produced during this movement took the metaphor so far as to actually feature cannibalism in both theme and style\u2014as did many of the films they inspired, such as Joaquim Pedro Andrade\u2019s Macuna\u00edma<\/em> (1960) and Nelson Pereira dos Santos\u2019 How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman<\/em> (1971)\u2014both benchmarks of Cinema Novo\u2019s cannibal-tropicalist phase.[6]<\/sup><\/a> In doing so, these works arguably associated indigeneity with primitivism, which is in itself a problematic notion. At the same time, the initiative to shine light on indigenous customs as important to the culture was a noble one, and Antropofagia deserves credit for challenging heteronormative, patriarchal, capitalist and colonial social structures through its many transgressions. As such, the author argues Antropofagia\u2019s notions of emancipation and its inclusion of indigenous people and people of color as inherently queer, and the movement\u2019s embrace of \u201cwomen\u2019s and abject bodies that have been denied visibility\u201d to be inherently queer.<\/p>\n

As for the book\u2019s physical content, Nemi Neto makes sure to include visual materials with image credit. These consist mainly of movie posters and stills which do a good job of conveying the textures and aesthetic sensibilities of this movement for anyone unfamiliar with the book’s subject matter. The book also includes a scan of Silv\u00e9rio Trevisan\u2019s Manifesto entendido from the filmmaker\u2019s personal archives, and provides an English translation of the text. The book also includes a helpful table of contents, as well as a thorough bibliography and index, preceded by a list of detailed notes that are labeled by chapter.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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[1]<\/span><\/sup><\/a> Jo\u00e3o Nemi Neto, Cannibalizing Queer: Brazilian Cinema from 1970 to 2015 <\/em>(Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press, 2022), 4-5.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/span><\/sup><\/a> Nemi Neto, Cannibalizing Queer: Brazilian Cinema from 1970 to 2015<\/em>, 9.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/span><\/sup><\/a> Nemi Neto, Cannibalizing Queer: Brazilian Cinema from 1970 to 2015<\/em>, 43.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/span><\/sup><\/a> Nemi Neto, Cannibalizing Queer: Brazilian Cinema from 1970 to 2015<\/em>, 10.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/span><\/sup><\/a> Nemi Neto, Cannibalizing Queer: Brazilian Cinema from 1970 to 2015<\/em>, 17.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/span><\/sup><\/a> Nemi Neto, Cannibalizing Queer: Brazilian Cinema from 1970 to 2015<\/em>, 12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ursula Mu\u00f1oz S. is a critic, journalist and MFA candidate at Boston University\u2019s College of Communication. Harboring a special interest in hispanic and lusophone media, she is currently completing her graduate thesis on political dissent in 21-st century Venezuelan genre films. Previously, her reporting on Puerto Rico\u2019s uptick in transfemicides was recognized by Florida\u2019s Society […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22232,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=999"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1042,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999\/revisions\/1042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}