Bissau-Guinean vernacular films in transnational flow

The School of Languages, Cultures and Societies at the University of Leeds, and the Leeds University Centre for African Studies, are hosting a research talk with by Dr Catarina Laranjeiro, who will speak about

Bissau-Guinean vernacular films in transnational flow

This presentation addresses the relation between the colonial legacy of images and the vernacular film production informally spreading throughout the African continent. By bringing this debate into the Portuguese postcolonial context, this presentation maps the production and circulation of vernacular films in Guinea-Bissau and their diaspora communities in Portugal. We may consider vernacular films, those which are directed by amateur filmmakers, with insignificant budgets outside of the conventional film production structures which can be purchased through informal trade or shared through social networks and internet channels. Not reaching film festivals or conventional movie circuits, these films achieve a wide circulation in Guinea-Bissau, neighbouring countries, and their diasporas, where they then reach other distribution circuits. This circulation produces a peculiar boomerang effect that creates a sense of community and eventually morphed the ways people perceive and consume them in their countries of origin.

Bio

Dr Catarina Laranjeiro studied social psychology at the FPCE-UL (Lisbon, Portugal), Cinema/ Moving Images at the Ar.Co (Lisbon, Portugal), Visual Anthropology at the FU (Berlin, Germany) and completed her doctorate degree in Post-colonialism and Global Citizenship at the CES-UC (Coimbra). Currently, she is a researcher at the Institute for Contemporary History of NOVA-FCSH (Lisbon, Portugal). In keeping with an especially transdisciplinary career, she has authored and collaborated in a number of projects which connect research and theory with the artistic creation, crossing the fields of anthropology, theatre and cinema. She directed the film PABIA DI AOS (2013).

This event is on campus at the University of Leeds but can be joined online via MS Teams. Click here to join the meeting