Gendering the favela

Brazilian national identities on screen

Sarah McDonald

pp. 113-130

in: Nicholas Monk, Mia Lindgren, Sarah McDonald, Sarah Pasfield-Neofitou (eds), Reconstructing identity, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

Abstract

This chapter explores how national and individual identities are shaped through cinema. Examining a range of Brazilian films that take place in the space of the favela or poor urban communities, this chapter examines how these spaces have come to define aspects of the Brazilian popular imaginary. Specifically, these constructions are looked at in terms of their implications for gendering the identity of these spaces.