From archive to film editing: an analysis of the production and uses of public and domestic images from the years of the military dictatorship in Brazil

ABSTRACT

This article reflects on the relations between the initiative of constituting a personal archive with images and public and private documents, the possibilities of reassembling this material and the ways of confronting the silencing policies of the Brazilian post-military dictatorship period with documentary cinema. In this process, letters and domestic images are used as sources for female narratives historically made invisible. We propose to analyze the context of production, uses, and meanings that are given to public and domestic images in Fico te devendo uma carta sobre o Brasil, discussing the history of these archival images, analyzing how they gain the public space and how they contribute to the constitution of a collective memory. Another interest is to understand an opposite movement: how and when public images gain a memorialistic, familiar, and affective character.

KEYWORDS:
Private archives; Military dictatorship; Documentary; Film editing