Crossing Cinema and the Elen Linth's gaze

Abstract

In recent years, women have occupied a significant space in Amazonian cinematographic production, emerging new paths within the art and craft, in addition to presenting unsubmissive narratives, which create a break with the traditional cinema perspective, thus highlighting the resistance and identity of the Amazon population. Among the regional directors, who stand out in the national and international festival circuit and in delving into socially borderline characters, is Elen Linth. Partner and founder of Eparrei Filmes, the director from Amazonas develops audiovisual projects that cross and touch her daily life as a black, LGBTQI+ and peripheral northern woman. This article aims to focus on his way of making cinema based on the film analysis of three of his productions from the last decade: Sandrine (2014, 13 minutes), Maria (2017, 17 minutes) and Transviar (2019, 30 minutes) . For this study, feminist critical theory was used as a theoretical contribution, with the guiding concepts of Claire Johnston's counter-cinema, the visual pleasure described by Mulvey (1983) and the female perspective as highlighted by Ann Kaplan and Joey Soloway. Regarding the nature of the research, film analysis was adopted as a methodology guided by the concept of Manuela Penafria (2009), which makes it possible to interpret films as individual works, providing, in this article, to analyze how the black female perspective is transposed to seventh art through of systematic observation. The result points to a cinema that seeks to humanize and project the perspective of minority groups through reflections on everyday experiences; further indicating the authenticity and identity that Linth imprints on his films.