Construindo um “herói” : o filme O Jardim das Aflições, o quid pro quo do jardim e o quiprocó no Cine PE 2017

Abstract

This dissertation aims to research through anthropological matrices the documentary O Jardim das Aflições, 2017 directed by Josias Teófilo. The film portrays an important figure on the Brazilian political right: Olavo de Carvalho. In the first chapter, I sought to build a theoretical-methodological overview of film analysis in anthropology. In other words, I went in search of theoretical references in order to analyze a film that had not been analyzed before. As it belongs to the field of social sciences, film analysis has several incidences from different academic schools. From the second chapter onwards I have two defined tasks. Defend the film as an object of research and research the film itself. In my first task, I define the social contours of production and reception by the public and critics. So the failures and successes were presented without analysis. In the second moment of the same chapter, I try to weave my analysis, based mainly on the theoretical concept of “Descriver O Visível”, by Marcius Freire and Philippe Lourdou. This concept is a theoretical-methodological framework of film anthropology that goes back to the precursor work of the anthropologist-filmmaker Jean Rouch. My analyzes seek to contemplate both larger notions and the clear mise-en-scènes edited by the film's director, this includes the main character: Olavo de Carvalho. Even minor notions, such as the behavioral nuances of Carvalho himself and his wife Roxane Carvalho and how they present themselves and/or are presented in the film. The relationships established by what is seen on the screen are important aspects for the analysis of any film, so that these analyzes show visible layers of human behavior, but hidden by the dynamism of day-to-day interactions enunciated by the audiovisual logic. For these analyses, I used mainly Clifford Geertz and his “Symbolic Anthropology”. It is important to point out that as an object of research I did not make use of extra-film resources other than Anthropology authors, with Clifford Geertz being the main one. This was an important methodological option, so that it reduced the complexity of this work, since I do not look for other elements of Olavo de Carvalho's life, besides those presented in the film. My main research objective is to understand how Olavo de Carvalho sees the other. This question, I think as a researcher, is the most achievable from the aforementioned film, as Carvalho talks almost all the time about the other. This means that even when the author makes self-references, it is to distance himself from the other.