Paper short abstract:

In Yvonne Kane and Cavalo Dinheiro, Margarida Cardoso and Pedro Cost , in different ways, work the idea of nostalgia through the concept of excess like different narrative of the national body.

Paper long abstract:

The cinema of Margarida Cardoso and Pedro Costa relate to the past through very different cinematographic aestethics and languages.. However, they both converse with the space of the former African colonies. They debate the colonial past through the category of nostalgia, although with different constructions and results. This paper starts from the interpretation of both filmmakers' last films, Cavalo Dinheiro and Yvonne Kane, and proposes a reflection on the concept of excess, following Baumann (2001) and Mbembe (2016). In both films, the past, populated by those who exceed the mainstream fiction of the Nation (both Portuguese and Mozambican) and by the ghosts of what is removed (the former colonial relationship and the recent struggle for independence), builds an idea of memory that feeds mainly on the margins of history (migrants, women) and geography (the Lisbon suburbs and Mozambique peripheral spaces), thus reweaving the interrupted dialogue between the various parts of the national body.

Paper short abstract:

This paper will shed light on representational strategies, as well as the ethical, pedagogical, and historical dimensions in Sana Na N’Hada’s film Bissau d’Isabel (2005).

Paper long abstract:

Sana Na N'Hada is one of the most important cultural producers of Guinea-Bissau. Through his feature films and documentaries, he has been creating a historical archive spanning the late colonial and postcolonial periods. This paper will shed light on Sana's documentary Bissau d'Isabel (2005), a powerful film that encompasses historical, political, poetic, ethical, and educational elements in connection to the multicultural mosaic of the country's capital city—as emblematic of the nation—centering on the life experience of its eponymous subject. As the documentary moves from macrological to micrological levels of representation, Isabel emerges as a figure that is symbolic of the nation as a whole; her life story is in many ways the story of Guinea-Bissau—from the utopias of the liberation struggle to the shattered postcolonial dreams, and yet its boundless resilience and enduring hope.

My paper is based on a forthcoming article titled, "The Filmography of Guinea-Bissau's Sana na N'hada: From the Return of Amílcar Cabral to the Threat of Global Drug Trafficking" to be published in 2017 by Portuguese Literary & Cultural Studies. This paper builds on my extensive research on Lusophone African postcolonial cinema published in my book, Lusophone Africa: Beyond Independence (University of Minnesota Press, 2011), forthcoming in Portuguese in an expanded version (Edusp, 2017). Until today, the work of Sana Na N'Hada has not received the attention it deserves in spite of its importance for the understanding of Guinea-Bissau.

Paper short abstract:

Je me propose d’analyser l’œuvre de Licínio de Azevedo, réalisateur et producteur au Mozambique, sous la perspective de l’articulation entre fiction et documentaire, entre monde rural et urbain, entre monde traditionnel et mesures dictées par le gouvernement et entre monde tangible et spirituel.

Paper long abstract:

Licínio Azevedo, brésilien, installé depuis longtemps au Mozambique, a commencé sa carrière comme journaliste et est actuellement réalisateur et producteur. Ses films sont basés sur des histoires réelles, témoignages de l'histoire récente du pays. L'articulation entre fiction et documentaire est une des caractéristiques les plus intéressantes de son œuvre. L'art de raconter une bonne histoire prise à la réalité, combiné avec l'art de peindre une société, sont mis au service de la réalisation de films qui se jouent entre les frontières de la fiction et de la réalité, de l'histoire et de l'actualité, de la ville et du monde rural, de la réalité tangible et du monde des esprits. Sans céder à la propagande, son approche réussit à informer et à faire réfléchir sur elle-même une société jeune qui cherche ses repères et son identité. Je m'intéresserai en particulier à Mariana e a Lua (1999), Desobediência (2002), à O Grande Bazar (2006) et à Virgem

Margarida (2012), où j'analyserai l'articulation entre fiction et documentaire. Mon analyse portera aussi sur les clivages entre le monde rural et le monde urbain, même international, et par fin sur l'éthique de vie des gens dans la grande ville et les petites villes hors de la capitale. Les conflits entre monde rural et urbains seront aussi examinés aussi sous le point de vue de deux pouvoirs qui s'affrontent - le monde traditionnel et les changements imposés par le gouvernement dans la tentative d'imposer une idéologie propre.

Paper short abstract:

This talk analyzes the film REGRESSO A NACALA (2001) which searches for the memories of colonialism and socialism in Mozambique. The documentary reflects on the tensions between subaltern rural and urban colonial as well as postcolonial elites. It also urges us to rethink the category of nostalgia.

Paper long abstract:

REGRESSO A NACALA (2001) by Joana Pereira Leite searches for the memories of colonialism and socialism in Nacala, northern Mozambique. When the harbor of this town was modernized in the 1950s and 1960s, the engineer José Henrique e Silva took a series of photographs of the local Makua fishermen community. The film brings the photographs back to the people who tell their stories, comment upon the relationship with Henrique e Silva and the FRELIMO government. Thereby, the film reflects the tensions between subaltern rural and urban colonial as well as postcolonial elites. But it also urges us to rethink nostalgia as a category that affects both retornados and people in Mozambique that experienced the time of the colonial regime.

Paper short abstract:

The films made outside the major production centers like Hollywood, in the United States, and other centers with lower production capacity, has been increasingly seen and studied, and this does appear new research clippings, such as cinemas in the suburbs even in regions and peripheral countries.

Paper long abstract:

The films made outside the major production centers like Hollywood, in the United States, and other centers with lower production capacity, has been increasingly seen and studied, and this does appear new research clippings, such as cinemas in the suburbs even in regions and peripheral countries, such as cinemas in the states of Amazonas and Maranhão, or Caxias and the Baixada Fluminense, region of the state of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, and even the cinemas of Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe. All these Portuguese-speaking countries has expressive cinematography and thematic distinct characteristics of production and circulation, both of documentary films, as fiction, of varying length, but with local issues and the unveiling of cultural trace elements and absolutely original modes of production. The purpose of this proposal is to explore theoretical possibilities regarding the transnational film field with a view to deepening the density of the concept of periphery and the mode of production in peripheral areas.