Carla Cerqueira opens and Isabel Macedo ends the Luso-Galician Cinema Cycle

Carla Cerqueira and Isabel Macedo participated in the Luso-Galician cinema cycle, on May 3 and 17, respectively. The cinema cycle sought to promote the cultural exchange between Galicia and the North of Portugal and bet on transversal themes and current.

The first session, which was attended by the CECS researcher, Carla Cerqueira, was dedicated to the role of women in cinema. Issues related to the presence of women in the audiovisual sector were discussed, especially as producers in the cinematographic area, and the short films seen in the session were analyzed from a gender perspective. “The two [short films] addressed some of the gender inequalities that still persist”, said Carla Cerqueira, referring to the similarities between the Galician and North context visible in the narratives presented in the two short films. “In addition to gender inequalities, we talked about class inequalities, aging, people’s relationship with nature,” said the CECS researcher. The presence of gender actors and the presence of directors of the short films promoted the discussion from the point of view of who produces and who visualizes.

Carla Cerqueira took stock of the session in which she participated, noting that this allowed “to know the cinematographic work that is being done in Galicia” and “realize that there are many similarities that allow even joint research work focusing the gender issues and the inequalities that are experienced by women”. The researcher also mentioned that cinema’s area is one that has interested her recently and that with this event she has already begun to outline other works in this field.

The closing session of this cinema cycle was also attended by the CECS, through the participation of the researcher Isabel Macedo. Dedicated to the theme “Society”, the session sought to discuss the feature film “Arraianos”, a fiction and documentary film, between Galicia and Portugal.

The presence of Isabel Macedo, a doctor in Cultural Studies, the anthropologist Cristina Sánchez Carretero and the producer of the film, Beli Martínez allowed discussing the production of “Arraianos”. In this feature film, scenes from a play are combined with the daily lives of people from a border region. Alternating moments of fiction and reality, this film presents the close relationship that is established in this community between people, animals and landscapes. The reality, myths and dreams seem to merge in this work inspired by the play The Grove, Jenaro Marinhas del Valle.

Isabel Macedo quotes Marinhas del Valle (1977, p. 318) regarding this play: “It is important to ask, the answer is what does not matter. […] the answers fade, rot … They are ephemeral, of little hard, they become useless. On the other hand, the questions … these are eternal! ” In the same way, the researcher considers that there are points in this film, there is no linear narrative. The public is free to interpret the film.

“Arraianos” constitutes an important contribution in the preservation of the memory and the popular culture. Songs, traditional songs, sung in Portuguese and Galician, myths and stories that we do not know, present, according to the researcher, a kind of fable about the rural world. In this film, without voice off, the sound and process of mounting beautiful images were very important. In this construction, as the producer mentioned, the film is rewritten and reinvented.