Mulheres no cinema, racismos e sexismo

Abstract

This dissertation stems from the analysis of inequalities highlighted by the latest IBGE census (2018), which shows the near-total exclusion of Black women - the largest identity group in Brazil - from both academia and cinema screens. It argues that Latin American and Brazilian racisms were brought by European colonization, aiming to legitimize the enslavement of Black and Indigenous peoples (Dijk, 2008b). The research emphasizes the erasure and silencing that subjugate thousands of individuals (Spivak, 2010; Ribeiro, 2017; Davis, 2016; Kilomba, 2019; hooks, 2013 and 2019; Collins, 2000), directly contributing to the ongoing violence and death of racialized people (Ribeiro, 2017; Mbembe, 2018). Through Critical Discourse Analysis and Womanism theories, this dissertation provides a critical reading of the films The Help (2011) and Venus Noire (2010), also revealing the paradoxical yet active participation of white women in the construction of Hollywood cinema. In the final section, the author reflects on the urgent need to reconstruct our own images and narratives, suggesting that cinema can be an essential tool for understanding and transforming contemporary society