Gender And Race In The Brazilian Cinema

Abstract

This article analyses the racial and gender profiles represented in two decades of Brazilian cinema. The aim is to contribute to social science debates on inequalities and intersectional feminist criticism, based on the understanding of how political minorities and dominant groups are inserted in the narratives formulated by the Brazilian audiovisual industry. To this end, we first built a database containing the most popular films between 1995 and 2015 according to information available at the Brazilian Observatory of Cinema and Audiovisual (OCA-ANCINE). We then viewed the feature films and classified several characteristics among 6,450 characters that achieved some relevance in the film plots, considering two criteria: naming or dialogue participation. The results indicate discriminatory inclusion patterns in the narratives, which mainly affect the black and brown populations.