ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Science on Screen: Images and Typologies of the Scientist in Brazilian Dystopian Cinema (1964-1985)

• In Event: Making and Circulating Images, Their Impact and Influences on Different Fields of Science 2

English Abstract

Brazilian science-fiction cinema produced during the Civil-Military Dictatorship (1964–1985) portrayed critical images of science and technology (S&T) in response to the regime’s project of “authoritarian modernization,” which promoted techno-scientific and industrial advances while suppressing civil liberties and political rights. This presentation focuses on a comparative analysis of Brasil Ano 2000 (1969), Quem é Beta? (1972), Parada 88 (1977), and Abrigo Nuclear (1981), demonstrating how their narratives, framing, and editing structures articulate these critiques. The analysis reveals a diverse typology of scientific activities, represented as producers of catastrophe (present in all films), instruments of domination (Quem é Beta? and Abrigo Nuclear), and, in a more nuanced portrayal, as pathways to a better future (Abrigo Nuclear). Concurrently, the figure of the scientist undergoes an evolution from the alienated professional (Brasil Ano 2000 and Quem é Beta?), to the dissenter (Parada 88), culminating in the dual and antagonistic roles of the agent of authoritarian regimes and the revolutionary (both in Abrigo Nuclear). The editing of these films, through their cuts, shot composition, narrative rhythms, and visual sequences, foregrounds the tensions between technological progress, authoritarianism, and the imagination of possible futures, creating a visual counterpoint to the regime’s official rhetoric of development and positioning science as a field of political dispute. Thus, the circulation of these typologies in national cinema functioned as a critical vehicle for debating the trajectories of S&T, including its social misalignments, and its simultaneous roles in both oppression and liberation.

Author

• Renan Siqueira da Silva