Dr Antonio da Silva, from the Department of Hispanic Studies, will be giving a talk entitled ‘There Come the Naughty Brazukas: Gender Identity and the Brazilian Immigrant in Europe in the Brazilian films Foreign Land (1996) and Jean Charles (2009)’ at the 3rd Seminar of Studies on Brazilian Migration in Europe.
Brazilian cinema throughout the years has constantly engaged with the issue of (im)migration in its different facets. This has normally taken place either in relation to internal migration, which occurs mostly from the country’s interior and its northeast to the big urban centres, or by focusing on immigrants from different parts of the world who moved to Brazil. However, a few films have portrayed Brazilians living abroad, including in England and Portugal. Antio’s presentation will engage with two of these films by focusing on their depiction of gender and certain issues related to this: Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas’s Terra Estrangeira/Foreign Land portrays Brazilian immigrants in Portugal in the 1990s and Henrique Goldman’s Jean Charles is based on the real case of the Brazilian man killed in London during the underground bombings of 2005. Departing from work on gender and sexuality in Brazil and on Brazilian immigration, Antonio will examine how these films engage (or do not engage) with gender identities and how they replicate (or refuse) those models ‘learnt’ back home.
The Seminar of Studies on Brazilian Migration in Europe aims to allow researchers who study the Brazilian migration in Europe to exchange knowledge and develop partnerships with fellow researchers and academics, as well as produce reference material and contribute to the development of policies and public actions that can improve the everyday life of Brazilians in Europe. The 2014 edition of the Seminar has been brought to the UK via the work being developed by GEB, the Brazilian Migration to the UK Research Group.
The event will take place on 4-5 April 2014 at the Institute of Education, University of London. For more information, please visit the webpage here: http://3seminariobrasileuropa2014.wordpress.com/