Intangible Cultural Heritage and the power of recollections in Southern Brazilian documentaries

Abstract

This paper presents a synthesis of the methodological approach and findings from a study that involves mapping, selection, classification, and analysis of memory documentaries in Southern Brazil under the National Program for Intangible Heritage’s calls for proposals. The study is grounded in theoretical connections between memory, heritage, and documentary films, with key contributions from Aleida Assmann, François Hartog, Joel Candaü, Guy Gauthier and Bill Nichols. In the first stage of the research, a classification procedure was developed following Gauthier’s typology, distinguishing memory documentaries from present-time documentaries. This resulted in a corpus of four memory documentaries produced in the states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul. In the second stage, the corpus was submitted to a film analysis supported by the parameters of the poetics of documentary interview as proposed by Leger Grindon. As an example of this analytical model’s application, an analysis was presented of two sequences in Tempo di Recordare and Receitas da Memória. Through their expository mode, the films organize recollections that, mediated by affect, assign a memorial value to the cultural practices of these communities.