Listening and Seeing

An Homage to Eduardo Coutinho. Princeton University, March 6, 2015.

How do we make sense of the tension between chance, preparation, and empathy when documenting the lives of others? Is “documenting” a verb that does justice to the filmmaker’s activity? What are the ethical implications and boundaries of inviting someone “to open up” or perform on camera? What roles do sound, silence, voice, and listening play in Eduardo Coutinho’s work? To what extent do Coutinho’s characters and films travel across cultural contexts and languages? In which ways has he influenced filmmakers in Brazil and beyond, and what dialogues with other fields of knowledge does his cinema invite?

Presented by the Program in Latin American Studies and the Race and Citizenship in the Americas Network. Co-sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Cultures, and the Program in Media + Modernity at Princeton University.

• Video 1: Introduction, Pedro Meira Monteiro and Bruno Carvalho.
• Video 2: Eduardo Escorel, João Moreira Salles, Tom Levin, Robson Pereira, Pedro Meira Monteiro, João Biehl.
• Video 3:  Sandra Kogut, Carlos Nader, Lucia Serrano Pereira, Lilia Schwarcz, Eduardo Cadava, Bruno Carvalho.

Photographs, Flora Thomson-DeVeaux.