Reparations Beyond Repair: Cinema and Reparatory Justice in Brazil and in the United States

• In Event: Black Cinema and Resistance

Abstract

Considering the economically marginalized position of black people in Brazil today, discussions on reparations for slavery should be common among its population. However, Afro-Brazilians seem to be skeptical that effective reparatory policies and measures addressing slavery would ever become a reality. The dystopian film Executive Order (Medida Provisória, Lázaro Ramos, 2020), conveys this skepticism by showing that reparatory policies can be easily coopted making them work against the targeted population and their desire for justice. The film has the potential to spark conversations about reparatory justice beyond quilombola’s rights to their land and affirmative action. This presentation explores how reparations are imagined in the film Executive Order. I argue that the myth of a racial democracy and the white supremacist Brazilian nation-building project explains why Afro-Brazilians view reparation justice with skepticism. We highlight the main events and policies addressing the legacy of slavery in Brazil and their results. I analyze Executive Order in light of the work of Abdias do Nascimento, Lélia Gonzalez and Sueli Carneiro. I contrapose their ideas to afropessimist theory that denies the possibility of reparations based on the role of black people in societies affected by colonialism and slavery. Finally, I show how different the Afro-Brazilian discourse on reparatory Justice is from the African American discourse through a comparison to “The Big Payback,” an episode of the North American show Atlanta (Hiro Murai, 2022).

Author

• Ana Claudia Dos Santos Sao Bernardo, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities