I had a dream – but didn't like it that much: a critique of Brazilian history and contemporary politics in non-naturalistic visual culture

• In Event: Utopian and dystopian impulses in Latin American visual cultures

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate how non-naturalistic genres (science fiction, fantasy and horror, or SF&F&H) have been instrumental in the critique of Brazilian history and contemporary politics. Over the last few years, a wide number of feature-length films and video-on-demand series have addressed acute social, political and economic issues by means of speculative fiction, as in the case of Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra's “Trabalhar cansa” (Hard Labor, 2011), Luiz Bolognesi's “Uma história de amor e fúria” (Rio 2096, 2013), and Adirley Queirós's “Branco sai, preto fica” (White Out, Black In, 2014). Utopian/dystopian worlds have also been envisaged in films like Eder Santo's “Deserto azul” (Blue Desert, 2013), and Marcelo Pedroso's “Brasil S/A” (Brazilian dream, 2014). In terms of new media, the futurist dystopia “3%” (two seasons, 2016-2018) has been praised as one of the most successful non-anglophone series produced and distributed by Netflix. Considering the aforementioned titles, this paper will investigate the trends entailed in recent Brazilian SF&F&H. I will argue that these films, and series, have been more eloquent than realistic-naturalistic films in the scrutiny of Brazilian history and politics, by tackling an array of issues that include class struggle, labor conditions, social exploitation, and the overall collapse of utopian narratives.

Author

• Alfredo Suppia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)