Contagem as the Heart of the World, Through the Eyes of the Producer Filmes de Plástico

Abstract

This article aims to address the trajectory of the Minas Gerais-based audiovisual production company Filmes de Plástico, focusing on the company’s latest feature film No coração do mundo (2019). We also intend to discuss the audiovisual promotion policies in Brazil which, for the past two decades, were responsible for inserting subjects and sectors that were excluded from the Brazilian and Latin American nation-state project. We start with the concept of “cosmopolitanism of the poor”, coined by Silviano Santiago (2004).  The paper explores to what extent the ideas proposed by the writer are useful for enlightening the discussion about cultural projects in contemporary Brazil. In addition to the concepts developed by Santiago (2004), it incorporates some ideas by Georges Didi-Huberman (2011) and Walter Benjamin (1987) that relate aesthetics to politics. These discussions are also helpful when thinking about the aesthetic elements proposed by Filmes de Plástico in their production, which can be spotted in their 2019 feature film. The film’s aesthetic foregrounds the cultural roots of those at the forefront of the production, valuing the memory and the space which compose those roots.