Have you ever heard of Adélia Sampaio? She was the first black woman to direct a film in Brazil, in 1984, called “Amor Maldito”. The production told the story of Fernanda and Sueli, two women who fall in love and move in together. Adélia is a milestone and a reference for other black women.
But, even today, most of the women who are in the stages of the assembly process of an audiovisual piece suffer from a lack of visibility, especially black women.
Read: The challenges and productions of black women in the audiovisual sector are the theme of the Prosa e Fato program
Who speaks of the challenges of inserting black women in the audiovisual production chain is Bruna Leite, director, cast producer, member of Mulheres no Audiovisual Pernambuco and Negritude no Audiovisual em Pernambuco (Mape). For her, the argument of structural racism to justify the absence of black women in this space “seems like an excuse for everything that is happening and what is the cause ends up being a response of comfort”, she denounces.
Check out the full interview:
Brasil de Fato Pernambuco: Bruna, how did you start working in the audiovisual field?
Bruna Leite: I’ve always worked with culture, I graduated in social communication and never actually worked in journalism. I’ve always worked with culture consultancy, with music, but I had never entered the audiovisual market. After traveling with the MST throughout the entire state of Pernambuco, through the World March of Women covering photo and video, I saw how the MST reached the settlements through the cinema clubs, bringing the video as a way of promoting the debate. I realized how transforming that was in the lives of those settled. So I went back to Recife, that was in 2016, with this mission in mind.
I said “I’m going to change areas and I’m going to break this bubble”, because it’s really breaking the bubble in audiovisual. We know that audiovisual, cinema mainly, is still a very elitist art, especially here in Recife, very provincial, from “caste” families, so to speak. So I returned determined with this mission and arrived in Recife asking everyone for work. I didn’t know how to do anything, I had no training in audiovisual and I entered the area that has less “glamour”, so to speak, which is the production assistant for figuration. Then I began to look at this function with great responsibility, because many people, especially those who work with cinema, think that glamor is given in cinema in other departments because they demand more money, such as photography, like the cast itself, but the extras it’s a department that people don’t look at so fondly.
So I started working with cinema because I realized through social movements, mainly the MST, how that transformed reality and then I came back with this function and today I work in the area and sign as a cast producer several feature films and shorts here, like I also do directing assistance. I’m also a director, I’m a screenwriter, I’m a director, I have five short films and now I’m working on my first feature project.
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You are part of the Women in Audiovisual Pernambuco. What is the importance of having this women’s organization here in the state?
Mape arose from this need to propose a new form of communication, above all by women, for women, with the eyes of women and also not only for women, but to show society as a whole that communication must be handled with responsibility.
I entered Mape as a form of militancy, but also to enter the market. I’m still active in the movement today and we’ve been building actions not only for visibility, but also for strengthening these networks of women, of affection. And I understand from my experience in the market how fundamental it is for us to have a Mape because it is very different. Since I started working there were very few women who we call “department heads”, which are the department heads. And then when I start working, Mape starts to emerge, because we start to guide it, I don’t know if it’s out of conscience, but I think it’s much more out of fear of being labeled as sexist, than the production companies and the producers and directors have started to insert more women these days.
I am fully aware that I work with many more women than men on film sets and this is the result of the militancy work that has been happening in the streets, through the women’s movement, Mape, we establish dialogues with the movements social movements, with movements in the countryside and in the city to also bring this political perspective to the movement. So we’ve been promoting actions, training, we’ve created a website where you just click on ‘directors’ and a lot will appear, the women’s curriculum, the films, so it’s also a way not only of visibility, but to insert these women in the market of work, because what we are talking about is people being able to survive from their work. These women work and they want to be paid for it.
So, the movement, in addition to giving visibility, welcomes these women because it’s very different, for example, when I’m on the film set, people look like “the union is here” (laughs), the women in the audiovisual sector are here. And then I see this progress but there is still a constant struggle, which is about the issue of race, in many moments, I am the only black woman who is occupying, mainly, the creative positions and it is these departments of direction, which is the department that I work with, there are many women, but the majority are white women and my struggle now is greater for the inclusion of black people, especially black women in audiovisual.
Read: Neighborhood of Boa Vista, in Recife, wins Diasporic Cultural Center that values African culture
In addition to the women’s movement in audiovisual, you are also active in the collective Negritude in Audiovisual in Pernambuco. How do you, as a producer, perceive this relationship between race and gender in audiovisual pieces?
Negritude appears a lot in this context of people joining together, because like the whole history of the struggle of black people, we realize that we only advance when we are together. The movement appears a lot in this context, but I realize that it is still a very big fight, because structural racism often seems like an excuse for everything that is happening and what is the cause ends up being a comfort response to whiteness.
It’s still very difficult for me to be on my team, for example, and realize how many black people I have by my side. I’m now working on a production where the only black person besides me is an assistant that I made a point of choosing and I chose a black woman, obviously. There are black people, but they are men in positions of strength, carrying things, organizing cleaning spaces. Creative, technical, creative positions, the type of language, creatively discussing situations, there is still a very large extensive struggle for us to face, especially here in Recife the team is mostly white and still with white women.
And that’s where the old debate comes in, right? Are women occupying? What kind of women? Are they all? I think feminism has been advancing and is very necessary, but it also needs to lose weight and this is also a fight that I fight within Mape. We’ve always been trying to guide how we can bring greater representation, but there’s still a lot of articulation left for us to actually blacken Pernambuco’s audiovisual sector.
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Bruna, do you believe that laws like Paulo Gustavo and Aldir Blanc can contribute to more women, especially black women, being able to fund their projects and achieve more visibility?
For sure. This is fundamental, mainly because whiteness does not want to lose its privilege, so if this does not come through law, public policy, the insertion of these people will not happen. For me, this is a well-placed reality. And then this is reflected in the numbers. When we see, for example, Funcultura before having the quotas, which were questioned a lot, and after having the quotas we already see a diversity, we see women occupying, I am an example because I was only able to do my things on my own of quotas.
I think it is time for people to be able to do it through these policies, so it is fundamental that there are quotas, but that there is also communication within these public notices and these structures that is accessible, because it is not enough to just set the quota, it is a debate that we need to deepen within the law and public notices. It is necessary to have a restructuring of how this textual communication of notices, requirements, creative use, number of characters, what material is requested, because it is often easier to send a video to a person who does not have a habit of writing, because you only have a cell phone in your hand to do it, than writing a text.
So I think there are things that need to be adjusted, but I do think that it is the way to be able to enter the market, for us to exist in the market and receive, because my biggest concern in this is where the money goes. Who’s taking the amount of money? It’s the same old people, so we need to get the money and that’s survival for people.
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What are the challenges for black women working in audiovisual?
There are many… I feel very lonely within my work and sometimes I feel very much in a non-place because I occupy a place where most of mine do not occupy. And in the same way, when I go back to mine, it’s like I’m not from that place. So I live in this middle way, always that old saying “put your hand to pull one, one leads to the other”, so I think the challenge is for us to be able to enter, pierce the bubble, yes, it is still not a given issue for us black women.
For women, this place exists, they are conquering it, but for us black women, indigenous women, it is a struggle to still exist, remain, survive, especially in the audiovisual field. Having the audiovisual industry as a profession, supporting yourself, for black women is still a very distant situation. And I appeal to the black women who are in the audiovisual: always pull the other one, always pull another black sister, have a generous look on them and call them to work with you.
Have the courage to be in these places, I tell all my friends and always think of projects that we can choose more black women. I, for example, approved a feature film project, where I take my life story and transform it into a fiction, which is called “Mãe Courage”. I have no experience with writing scripts, for example, and within the project I organized a script workshop with Cintia Lima, from Recife, giving a workshop.
Our project proposes to bring ten more black women who are going to write, there is a script class next year at Funcultura; in another announcement, they will have autonomy and will have at least one base to write their history. I think that we always have to think that we are never alone and we do have a responsibility to bring another one until this really changes, while that doesn’t change, it is our task to always bring one more.
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Source: BdF Pernambuco
Editing: Vanessa Gonzaga
