Saudades, I belong to longing : um filme-carta de um corpo em descolamento.

Abstract

This work investigates the film-letter format as a mediating tool for understanding and expressing intimate and universal human experiences, with an emphasis on saudade (longing) in migratory contexts. Aiming to comprehend how the film-letter can promote humanization and build empathy among different people, it presents the process of elaborating a letter-script, the result of creative work and theoretical reflection throughout the study. To this end, it offers an interdisciplinary literature review, discussing topics such as the essay film and the film-letter, in dialogue with other cinematic languages such as documentary, fiction, and experimental film. Additionally, the investigation delves into theoretical reflections on voice-over, the inscription of the self in film, the concepts of the traveling director and the archaeological point of view, to understand the function of the image and personal recording in the film-letter. Feminist theory studies are employed to discuss cinema as a socio-cultural agent, questioning form and content, central elements of the essay film, as well as philosophical theories on the production of knowledge and the sensitive experience related to the film-letter. Cinema is also approached as a place of encounter, with concepts of othering, place of speech theory, and ethnographic cinema, focusing on the dialectic between “I-it” and “I-you” and the concept of speaking “nearby” as opposed to speaking “about”. By describing the process of developing the letter-script, the methodology outlines the procedures for selecting and organizing personal archive materials, suggesting an editing approach that aligns theory with creative work. The conclusion indicates that the film-letter, due to its reflective and subjective nature, can be a powerful tool for mediating knowledge and fostering empathetic dialogue, emphasizing humanization as a central aspect in building bridges between people and experiences.