Stela Schroeder
depict historic memories , the way these memories connect to artistic performance , and how LGBT + bodies occupy the Brazilian urban landscape . In this essay I will focus my analysis on Meu Amigo Claúdia and Laerte-se , occasionally mentioning the other four documentaries .
Gilberto Alexandre Sobrinho ( 2020 ) recently published an article encompassing several Brazilian queer documentaries , mapping out the strategies used by documentarists to show queer representation and discussing how these subjects are presented . In his words , “ documentaries (…) have shown to be a strategic field for narrative constructions of the LGBT world , in several ways : political activism , historic investigations , memory building , in poetic and performative creation (…) so , we can claim there is an expressive set of queer documentaries , in Brazil .” Thus , I understood this to be an interesting topic to research and build a film festival from . However , to truly grasp Brazil ’ s queer legacy and how it is reflected in its documentaries , it is important to understand the period where these stories take place . It is a period which starts ( military dictatorship of 1964-1985 ) and ends ( Bolsonaro ’ s election , a President who openly admits “ I ’ m homophobic ” ( 2013 )) with strong political conservatism , and it is tightly knit in Brazil ’ s LGBT movement .
The LGBT + movement in Brazil was born in the late 70s , the first organization being Sao Paulo ’ s Somos from 1978 . Before that , Edward MacRae ( 2018 , pp . 165-166 ) explains “ homosexual groups ”, as they were called at the time , traditionally had the sole intention of entertainment and their critical aspects were limited to parody and humour surrounding the happenings of the high society . Reunions of these groups were generally undercover , because while homosexuality was not considered a crime under Brazilian law , discrimination and police brutality were still quite frequent . Internalised homophobia was also widely prevalent . An important moment in Meu Amigo Claúdia where Wonder tells us about how
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