The weight of the past: trauma and testimony in Que bom te ver viva

This article examines representations of trauma in Lúcia Murat’s Que bom te ver viva (How Nice to See You Alive, 1989), a semi-documentary focusing on the experiences of former political militants who, like the director herself, were arrested and tortured under Brazil’s military dictatorship. Despite having limited distribution at the time of release, the film has since gained status as one of the most significant representations of State-sanctioned violence during the 1960s and 1970s. It has received renewed attention more recently as Brazil enters a new period of reckoning with human rights crimes committed during the military regime. I first consider elements of trauma theory and their potential for better understanding the ways in which the film establishes connections between individual suffering and the wider socio-political realm. Essential to the film’s understanding of historical trauma are processes of ‘acting out’ and ‘working through’ which I explore along with the need, partially fulfilled in Que bom te ver viva, to create a witness to traumatic events. This is combined with an examination of stylistic strategies. I argue that the film’s flexible and unconventional aesthetics is a crucial means through which it can represent certain experiences associated with trauma and perform a radical re-envisioning of history

Venom alkaloids against Chagas disease parasite: search for effective therapies

Chagas disease is an important disease affecting millions of patients in the New World and is caused by a protozoan transmitted by haematophagous kissing bugs. It can be treated with drugs during the early acute phase; however, effective therapy against the chronic form of Chagas disease has yet to be discovered and developed. We herein tested the activity of solenopsin alkaloids extracted from two species of fire ants against the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, the aetiologic agent of Chagas disease. Although IC50 determinations showed that solenopsins are more toxic to the parasite than benznidazole, the drug of choice for Chagas disease treatment, the ant alkaloids presented a lower selectivity index. As a result of exposure to the alkaloids, the parasites became swollen and rounded in shape, with hypertrophied contractile vacuoles and intense cytoplasmic vacuolization, possibly resulting in osmotic stress; no accumulation of multiple kinetoplasts and/or nuclei was detected. Overexpressing phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase—an enzyme essential for osmoregulation that is a known target of solenopsins in mammalian cells—did not prevent swelling and vacuolization, nor did it counteract the toxic effects of alkaloids on the parasites. Additional experimental results suggested that solenopsins induced a type of autophagic and programmed cell death in T. cruzi. Solenopsins also reduced the intracellular proliferation of T. cruzi amastigotes in infected macrophages in a concentration-dependent manner and demonstrated activity against Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense bloodstream forms, which is another important aetiological kinetoplastid parasite. The results suggest the potential of solenopsins as novel natural drugs against neglected parasitic diseases caused by kinetoplastids.Fil: Silva, Rafael C. M. Costa. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Fox, Eduardo G. P.. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; Brasil. South China Agricultural University; ChinaFil: Gomes, Fabio M.. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; Brasil. National Institutes of Health; Estados UnidosFil: Feijó, Daniel F.. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Ramos, Isabela. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Koeller, Carolina M.. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; Brasil. University at Buffalo; Estados UnidosFil: Costa, Tatiana F. R.. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Rodrigues, Nathalia S.. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Lima, Ana P.. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Atella, Georgia C.. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Rocha de Miranda, Kildare. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; Brasil. Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia em Biologia Estrutural e Bioimagem; BrasilFil: Schoijet, Alejandra Cecilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr. Héctor N. Torres"; ArgentinaFil: Alonso, Guillermo Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr. Héctor N. Torres"; ArgentinaFil: de Alcântara Machado, Ednildo. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Heise, Norton. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; Brasi

Women’s memories of political violence in Brazilian cinema

It has been argued that in the recent era of Brazil’s reckoning with its dictatorial past, the perspective of women has remained largely on the margins. The films of Lúcia Murat, Emilia Silveira and Flávia Castro, among others, help to rectify this marginalization by placing women’s experiences at the centre of attention. Their films challenge dominant discourses that typically portray women as passive victims of masculine institutions (the police and the armed forces) to highlight, instead, new themes and perspectives, including the active participation of women as revolutionaries and their ongoing commitment to memory politics. Some of these films also shed light on the gendered nature of repression as they suggest how the forms of violence adopted by the state responded to wider anxieties and expectations concerning the place of women in society. By means of close textual readings and personal interviews with the directors, I address two main questions: What specific contributions have women film-makers made to reconstructing memories of the dictatorship in Brazil? How does the gender of the film-maker matter when addressing the way state violence is remembered? In order to do that I focus on five films: Que bom te ver viva and A memória que me contam (Lúcia Murat, 1989 and 2012), Diário de uma busca (Flávia Castro, 2010), Vou contar para os meus filhos (Tuca Siqueira, 2012) and Setenta (Emilia Silveira, 2013)

Performing Brazil: Essays on Culture, Identity, and the Performing Arts. Edited by Severino J. Albuquerque and Kathryn Bishop-Sánchez

No abstract available

The national and the transnational in Brazilian postdictatorship cinema

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The national and the transnational in Brazilian postdictatorship cinema

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New Argentine and Brazilian cinema: reality effects (New Directions in Latino American Cultures Series)

No abstract available