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oa Nights of Crises and Resistance: (En)countering the Politics of Disease and Death in (2019)

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This chapter discusses representations of night-time and darkness in the acclaimed 2019 feature film Bacurau by Brazilian directors Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles. It considers the role played by spaces filmed under the cover of darkness in the film's representation of social crises in public health provision and wellbeing. This chapter draws on Williams' (2008) spatialized conceptualization of the night, understood as comprising the part of the 24-hour cycle that is commonly associated with life after dark. Williams argues that dimensions of time and space cannot be uncoupled and defends the conceptualization of ‘night spaces’ as distinctive from daytime spatialities. Following Williams, this chapter conceives of night spaces as socially mediated and related to ‘processes of territorialization’: social forms of imposition or attempts by authorities to impose order on the interactions between people and on the non-human world (Williams 2008: 517)

Keywords: arts and social justice ; Brazil ; Brazilian cinema ; cultural activism ; cultural agency ; health equity ; necropolitics in film ; nighttime in film ; North-East Brazil ; political cinema

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Nights of Crises and Resistance: (En)countering the Politics of Disease and Death in Bacurau (2019)
Intellect , 181 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1386/9781789389869_12
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References

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References

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     [Google Scholar]
  2. Bentes, I. (2019), ‘Bacurau e a síntese do Brasil brutal’, Revista Cult, 29 August.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Brandão, A. and Sousa, R. Lira de (2020), ‘Bodylands: Para além da invisibilidade lésbica no cinema: Brincando com água’, Rebeca – Revista Brasileira de Estudos de Cinema e Audiovisual, 9:2, pp. 98–118.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Chazkel, A. (2017), ‘The invention of night: Visibility and violence after dark in Rio de Janeiro’, in G. Santamaría and D. Carey (eds), The Publics and Politics of Violence in Latin America, Norman, Ok: University of Oklahoma Press, pp. 143–58.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Conde, M. (2020), ‘Brazil in the time of coronavirus’, Geopolítica(s): Revista de estudios sobre espacio y poder, 11, pp. 239–49.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Dunn, N. and Edensor, T. (2020), Rethinking Darkness: Cultures, Histories, Practices, London: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Ferreira, C. O. and Nafafé, J. L. (2021), ‘Resistência, necropolítica e fantasias de vingança: Bacurau (2019), de Kleber Mendonça Filho e Juliano Dornelles’, Rebeca – Revista Brasileira de Estudos de Cinema e Audiovisual, 10:2, pp. 244–76.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Film at Lincoln Centre (2020), ‘The directors of Bacurau & Sônia Braga on the making of their Brazilian thriller’, YouTube, 6 March, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z51vOSxus8. Accessed 19 December 2022.
  9. Fischer, M. M. J. (2021), ‘Bacurau flies at dusk: Film, viral cultural politics, Covid-19, hauntings, and futures’, Anuário Antropológico, 46:1, pp. 166–89.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Gomes, P. H. (2020), ‘Não sou coveiro, tá?’, diz Bolsonaro ao responder sobre mortos por coronavirus’, O Globo, 20 April, https://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2020/04/20/nao-sou-coveiro-ta-diz-bolsonaro-ao-responder-sobre-mortos-por-coronavirus.ghtml. Accessed 25 March 2024.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Ikeda, M. (2020), ‘The ambuities of Badura’, Film Quarterly, 74:2, pp. 81–83.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Lefebvre, H. ([1974] 1991), The Production of Space (trans. D. Nicholson-Smith), Oxford: Blackwell.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Massey, D. (2006), ‘Landscape as a provocation: Reflections on moving mountains’, Journal of Material Culture, 11:1&2, 33–48.192
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Mattos, R. (2019), ‘Tropicalismo e canção engajada no filme Bacurau’, Esquerda Online, 29 September, Tropicalismo e canção engajada no filme BacurauEsquerda Onlinehttps://esquerdaonline.com.br › tr. Accessed 25 March 2024.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Mbembe, A. (2019), Necropolitics (trans. Steven Corcoran), Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Mendonça Filho, K. (2019), ‘Kleber Mendonça Filho: “Não fiz um panfleto”. Interview with Molica F. and Motta, B’, Revista Veja, 29 September, https://veja.abril.com.br/cultura/kleber-mendonca-filho-bacurau/https://veja.abril.com.br/cultura/kleber-mendonca-filho-bacurau/. Accessed 25 March 2024.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Mittelman, D. M. (2022), ‘White horror in Bacurau’, Romance Quarterly, 20, pp. 1–20.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Palmer, R. (2000), Cultures of Darkness: Night Travels in the Histories of Transgression (from Medieval to Modern), New York: Monthly Review Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Rubinstein, B. (2020), ‘Drag artist Silvero Pereira on getting blood-soaked in Bacurau’, Interview Magazine, 6 March, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/silvero-pereira-bacurau. Accessed 20 December 2022.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Williams, R. (2008), ‘Night spaces: Darkness, deterritorialization, and social control’, Space and Culture, 11:4, pp. 514–32.
     [Google Scholar]

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