Negando o conexionismo: Notas Flanantes e Sábado à Noite ou como ficar à altura do risco do real

Abstract

In this paper I discuss the way in which a selection of contemporary Brazilian documentaries relate themselves to what has been called “the risk of the real”, an expression coined by the French critic and filmmaker Jean Louis Comolli, which has been widely used by scholars to identify the “place” the filmmaker should occupy in relation to the real and to the other. Being at “the risk of the real” evolves as a commitment to a shared image of the self and the other. This concept emerges as something of a paradigm for the so-called modern documentary and it  is widely embraced by contemporary Brazilian production. An importante diversity of forms and styles, mechanisms and procedures take part in this practice. One of my lines of argument is that this tension is part of a distance these films intend to create in relation to contemporary forms of power and contemporary connectionist capitalism, as studied by Boltanski, and Chiapello (The new spirit of the capitalism). I specifically refer to two recent documentaries that in my opinion face this problem and dialogue with the limits of “the risk of the real”; Sábado à noite (2007), by Ivo Lopes and Notas Flanantes (2008) by Clarissa Campolina.