BLACK CINEMA IS BRAZILIAN CINEMA: STRUGGLES, CONFLICTS, AND PERSPECTIVES
- 15/06/25 - Sunday | 14:00 - 15:15
Despite important progress in recent years, Brazilian cinema still reflects deep-rooted structural inequalities when it comes to the presence of Black people in film and media production. The ongoing fight for greater visibility – both in front of and behind the camera – has driven affirmative action policies and led to a growing presence of Black professionals in the industry. Yet this progress is still shaped by contradictions: what kinds of narratives about Black lives are being told? And who gets to tell them? As the visibility of Black bodies on screen increases, it becomes essential to reflect on both the possibilities and the limitations of this representation. This conversation explores the place of Black cinema in contemporary Brazil and the ongoing challenges of building a cinema that is both unmistakably Black and undeniably Brazilian.
Mediation
>Kariny Martins
Kariny Martins is a curator, researcher, and screenwriter. She holds a Master’s degree in Film and Video Arts from the State University of Paraná and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Communication at Fluminense Federal University. Kariny serves on the curatorial committees of Olhar de Cinema – Curitiba International Film Festival and Griot – Contemporary Black Cinema Festival, and is part of the artistic team at FIANB – Brazil’s International Black Audiovisual Festival. Kariny regularly participates in festivals as a jury member, moderator, and speaker, collaborating with events such as DOCSP, the Gramado Film Festival, MIMB, FestCurtasBH, Cabíria, Rio2C, and others. She is the author of “Speculative Fiction in Black Brazilian Cinema – The Afrofuturist Aesthetic in Short Films” (A Quadro Edições, 2023) and was part of the inaugural Audience Design program at Berlinale/Rio Talents (2024).
Speakers
Rodrigo Antonio
Rodrigo Antonio is a historian and audiovisual producer with a Master’s in Arts from UFPA. He has produced internationally renowned fiction and documentary features and shorts, as well as web series and educational documentaries. He also works as a curator and evaluator for labs, sector funding programs, markets, and festivals, alongside research and consulting focused on socially impactful production. Founder and former coordinator of Matapi – the Northern Brazil Audiovisual Market (2018–2021), coordinator of the Climate Story Lab Amazônia (2021), and former general director of the International Festival of Black Brazilian Audiovisual – FIANB (2020–2022). He also served as executive president of the Black Audiovisual Professionals Association – APAN (2021–2023) and Director of Audiovisual Training and Innovation at Brazil’s Ministry of Culture (2023–2025). He currently serves as Director of Training at Instituto Taturana and is developing his first feature film as a director.
Tatiana Carvalho Costa
Tatiana Carvalho Costa is a professor, curator, and filmmaker, currently pursuing her doctorate at PPGCom/UFMG. She is president of APAN and a member of FICINE. Tatiana serves on the Superior Cinema Council and teaches at Centro Universitário UNA (Belo Horizonte, MG), where she also collaborates with the research group CORAGEM. Since 2019, she has been part of the curatorial team for the Tiradentes Film Festival and served as executive coordinator of the Tiradentes Forum in 2025. She has been the Artistic Director of FIANb since 2020 and was a juror at FESPACO in 2023 and 2025. As a filmmaker, she directed “Minha África Imaginária” (2024). She is the co-author of several books, including “Contemporary Perspectives” (2011), “Women Communicate: Mediations, Society, and Feminisms” (Letramento, 2016), “Brazilian Cinema Responds to the Nation” (Universo Produção, 2022), and “Un-Mapping the Global South” (Routledge, 2024).
