Performance, Collaboration, and Authority in Contemporary Brazilian Documentaries

Recent Brazilian documentaries underscore the epistemic and aesthetic potential of creative performances of one’s own experience. Examples can be found in Rodrigo Siqueira’s Terra deu, terra come (2010), Ariel Ortega and Patrícia Ferreira’s Bicicletas de Nhanderú (2011), and Adirley Queirós’s Branco sai, preto fica (2014). In these films, the person who has experience with a given topic is portrayed as an authority, and their authority derives from both their experience itself and their ability to express that experience poignantly. Over the last thirty years, Brazilian documentary filmmakers and critics have shown a growing interest in subjects’ creative performances in front of the camera. I highlight how performances in contemporary documentaries grow out of the collaboration between director and subject, looking specifically at subjects’ performances that fall somewhere between a traditional documentary interview and a stylized theatrical performance.