A construção biográfica em Santiago

Abstract

In theoretical field on filmmaking, the observation of biographical constructions get more evidence with the constant experience of representation of self and other which cinema stimulates. Biographical and autobiographical documentaries become common practice in the post-resumption of Brazilian cinema. Following this logic, grows the need to establish procedures that enable the identification of different manifestations to report on (own) life in contemporary documentary cinema. In line with the proposal of biographical space (Arfuch) and categories found in both literary biographical writing (Vilas Boas) as in film narrative (Puccini), our research focused on carrying out the analysis and the definition of the procedures of biographical and autobiographical accounts related to the documentary Santiago (2007), a João Moreira Salles film. Seeking to examine the possibilities of biographical construction present in the development of film narrative, we distinguish five modes of biographical approach that enables a better understanding of the making of the story in Santiago: (1) Santiago as biographee character in the film that the director tried to mount in 1992; (2) Santiago as biographer, as he incorporates personal interpretations to writing about the characters of the nobility; (3) Santiago as a writer of a confessional writing, which has at its center an expression of intimacy and that can be read like a diary; (4) João Moreira Salles as biographer director during the time of construction of Santiago´s path and (5) João Moreira Salles as autobiographee character, by pointing out his childhood memories through the autobiographical first-person account.