Guilherme Carréra, PhD alumnus of the University of Westminster’s Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM), has won the Best First Monograph award in the prestigious British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS) book prize for his book Brazilian Cinema and the Aesthetics of Ruins.
The book was first published by Bloomsbury Academic in December 2021 and was produced off the back of Carréra’s CAPES Foundation (Ministry of Education, Brazil)-funded PhD research, which he undertook at CREAM between 2015 and 2019. In the book, Carréra examines the imagery of ruins in contemporary Brazilian cinema and considers these representations in the context of Brazilian society. The book had already been awarded the Best Monograph prize at the Association of Moving Image Researchers Awards in Portugal back in 2022.
In the book, Carréra analyses documentaries about three different places in Brazil: Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and the indigenous territories. He looks specifically at the ruinscapes presented in the footage of ten documentaries and uses them to address the themes of progress and underdevelopment in Brazil.
The book discusses these documentaries in relation to the legacies of Cinema Novo, Tropicália and Cinema Marginal, asking how present-day filmmakers dialogue with or depart from previous traditions. In doing so, the book challenges not only documentary-making conventions but also Brazil's official narrative.
The BAFTSS, which awarded him two years post-publication, exists primarily to promote the place and role of Film, Television and Screen Studies as an established, recognised and relevant academic discipline within Higher Education and to foster research in the field of Film, Television and Screen Studies.
The BAFTSS judges said about the book: "This is a thought-provoking study of both contemporary Brazilian cinema and documentary film. The book sheds new light on the figure of the ruin and the ruinous beyond the European context, investigating its visual elaboration through the representation of cities (Brasília and Rio de Janeiro) and indigenous territories, and its function as a critical tool for Brazilian filmmakers.
“Carréra charts in meticulous detail how ruins have been used throughout Brazilian cinema to debate topics such as poverty, inequality and underdevelopment and ultimately, how cinematic ruins function as potential sites of complex questions about the relationship between Brazil and ideas of modernity."
Guilherme Carréra said: “This monograph is the outcome of several years of researching and reflecting on Brazilian imagery in order to discuss controversial notions of progress and underdevelopment. I do hope the BAFTSS prize paves the way for the book to find more and more readers around the world. Winning this award means a lot to me, so thank you to the jury for this incredible honour."
Brazilian Cinema and the Aesthetics of Ruins is available to purchase through Bloomsbury’s website.
Hear more about Guilherme Carréra’s research and the award-winning book at a recording taken at the event Geographies of Ruins in Contemporary Brazilian cinema – a conversation between Guilherme Carréra and Mariana Cunha.
Learn more about CREAM.
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