Um Dia na Vida (2010), Eduardo Coutinho
The Portuguese journal Aniki – Revista Portuguesa da Imagem em Movimento has a new issue out with a special selection of articles about Brazilian cinema in the neoliberal age. Edited by Lúcia Nagib, Ramayana Lira de Sousa, and Alessandra Soares Brandão, Brazilian cinema in the neoliberal age covers specific topics concerning the Brazilian production between the mid-1990s and now. I have a piece in it titled “Non-existence as non-complicity,” about Eduardo Coutinho’s Um Dia na Vida (2010). One of the lesser-known works by the great Brazilian filmmaker, Um Dia na Vida is a compilation feature film made exclusively of footage appropriated from Brazilian free-to-air television broadcasted on October 1st, 2009. Due to copyright constraints, the film’s circulation has been severely restricted, but Coutinho turns that limitation into the film’s very raison d’être. The article has only been published in Portuguese so far, but I hope to publish a full English translation soon. In the meantime, I’m including a translation of the first paragraph below. Check out Aniki for the full selection of articles, which can be downloaded straight from their website. Special thanks to the editors, Dan Streible, for his guidance, and to Jordana Berg and Adriano Garrett, for providing key information and material for this research.
“The attempt to write a biography of a ghost poses an epistemological challenge. One doesn’t know the exact dates when a ghost is born or departs. Moved by the desire to encapsulate the ghost’s existence, the researcher can only collect records – whether they’re oral, visual, or written – from those who claim to have met it, and retrace its hypothetical life through a trajectory that refuses historiography. A ghost is the account of its alleged existence. Those who have been face-to-face with it spend enormous energy affirming it exists. But the ghost itself works for the maintenance of its non-existence, otherwise, it would cease being a ghost. Its biography inevitably becomes a history of refusals. Shreds of evidence and clues add up to a collection of contradictory flashes, of apparitions and disappearances that, although easily dismissed as hearsay, leave indelible marks in those who have stared into the eyes of the revenant.”
Related readings:
- Last Conversations (Últimas Conversas, 2015), Eduardo Coutinho
- Moscow (Moscou, 2009), Eduardo Coutinho
- Rewatching Eduardo Coutinho
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Um Dia na Vida (2010), Eduardo Coutinho
O periódico português Aniki – Revista Portuguesa da Imagem em Movimento lança nova edição com um dossiê sobre o cinema brasileiro na era neo-liberal. Editado por Lúcia Nagib, Ramayana Lira de Sousa, e Alessandra Soares Brandão, O cinema brasileiro na era neo-liberal cobre questões específicas à produção brasileira entre meados dos anos 1990 e hoje. Contribuí com um artigo chamado “A inexistência como não-compactuação”, sobre Um Dia na Vida (2010), de Eduardo Coutinho. Um dos filmes menos conhecidos de Coutinho, Um Dia na Vida é um longa-metragem de compilação composto exclusivamente de material apropriado da TV aberta brasileira, transmitido no dia 1 de Outubro de 2009. Devido a limitações de direitos sobre o material, a circulação do filme é até hoje extremamente restrita, mas Coutinho transforma essa limitação no centro nervoso do próprio filme. O artigo pode ser baixado em PDF no site da Aniki, assim como os outros textos incluídos nesta edição. Meus agradecimentos às editoras, Dan Streible, pela sua orientação, e a Jordana Berg e Adriano Garrett, por fornecerem informações e materiais fundamentais à pesquisa.
Leituras relacionadas:
- Last Conversations (Últimas Conversas, 2015), Eduardo Coutinho
- Moscow (Moscou, 2009), Eduardo Coutinho
- Rewatching Eduardo Coutinho
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