{"id":23710,"date":"2022-01-03T17:08:50","date_gmt":"2022-01-03T22:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/rs\/?p=23710"},"modified":"2024-01-02T12:46:49","modified_gmt":"2024-01-02T17:46:49","slug":"rodrigo-lopes-de-barros-on-filmmaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/rs\/2022\/01\/03\/rodrigo-lopes-de-barros-on-filmmaking\/","title":{"rendered":"Rodrigo Lopes de Barros, On Filmmaking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prof. Rodrigo Lopes de Barros<\/a> on His Filmmaking.<\/h4>\n

\"PhotoI see filmmaking as the search for an original medium of expression in scholarship. A\u00a0documentary about a writer can reveal new facets of their creative process. An audiovisual performance of someone\u2019s poetic or fictional work has the potential of giving new understandings to the audience, even generating a different comprehension about the very nature of literature. When transposing literature to the screen, the culture of the written word, so powerful and dominant in certain circles, can be shown to be intertwined with oral traditions and (even) with the body. Movements, dance, and voice tones become essential to the full existence of a poem or a short story.<\/p>\n

My first incursion into the audiovisual documentation of writers happened with Chacal: Forbidden to Write Poetry<\/a> <\/em>(2015-2018). Chacal is a Brazilian poet who emerged in the early 1970s, during the dark times of the country\u2019s military dictatorship. With a work later defined as \u201cpost-hippie and proto-punk,\u201d he was considered a \u201cmarginal\u201d writer owing to both his do-it-yourself practice of publishing artisanal books and his language linked with the everyday life in Rio de Janeiro. In my documentary, I used a variety of analog and digital media to recreate Chacal\u2019s aesthetics of the 1970s, in particular with the use of Super 8 film. Moreover, the orality of Chacal\u2019s poetry becomes even more powerful on the screen. Chacal does not read his poems, he performs them. The physical contact with the poet allowed me to delve into his creative world. Now, I am in the process of editing a book titled Chacal: Poetry on the Margins<\/em>, which includes a bilingual edition of more than 30 of his poems, an autobiographical play, an interview, the transcription of a poetry workshop, essays, and a digital link to my documentary.<\/p>\n