Sou sujeito / estou sujeita : formas de autoinscrição no cinema experimental de mulheres (EUA, 1990-1993)

Abstract

This research operates at the intersection of three fields of knowledge: feminist perspectives, the domain of autobiographical practices and experimental forms of filmmaking. It focuses on the context of the early 1990s and addresses three American filmmakers: Su Friedrich, Camille Billops and Cheryl Dunye. With different ways of existing in the world and in images, these artists use unique strategies to bring their bodies, memories, feelings and thoughts to filmmaking. The dissertation therefore investigates how the films that make up the corpus build bridges between personal perspectives and collective experiences through forms of filmic self-inscription. We analyze what procedures they employ in order to create feminist poetics in cinema through ways of experimenting with images and sounds, informed by their positionalities as black and/or lesbian women. By mobilizing different strategies in their ways of negotiating with the realities, memories and people filmed, each work creates a “we” that recognizes itself as circumstantial, while at the same time having to deal with the challenges of saying “I”. The films in the corpus are Sink or Swim (1990) by Su Friedrich; the feature Finding Christa (1991) and the short Suzanne, Suzanne (1982), co-directed by Camille Billops and James Hatch; and three video shorts directed by Cheryl Dunye: Janine (1990), She Don't Fade (1991), and An Untitled Portrait (1993).