Entre agulhas, punhais e câmeras: cangaceiras protagonistas no cinema (1976 – 2017)

Abstract

The theme of cangaço found fertile ground in cinematic productions. The saga of Lampião and his mens entered the realm of the seventh art, resulting in roughly fifty films identified throughout the 20th century. However, only a few works have sought to portray the role of women cangaceiras. For this reason, this study examines how the audiovisual productions A Mulher no Cangaço (1976, by Hermano Penna), A Musa do Cangaço (1982, by José Umberto Dias), and Entre Irmãs (2017, by Breno Silveira) approached the protagonism of these female bandits. Two documentaries and one feature film were selected, respectively.The study investigates how these productions mobilized the memories and testimonies of women who took part in the cangaço. In dialogue with the history of the backlands (sertões), gender studies, and social discourse analysis, cinema emerges as a privileged space for the surfacing of marginalized memories, enabling these figures to be repositioned as protagonists of their own narratives. By revisiting the history of cangaço from a female perspective, elements once considered secondary could be inscribed as fundamental parts of this experience. This approach was made possible through the theoretical framework employed, which shed light on the subject. Accordingly, the analysis intersects gender as a category of analysis (Scott, 1995), the history of women (Perrot, 2007), subterranean memories (Pollak, 1989), and the testimonial turn in historical knowledge (Seligmann-Silva, 2022). Based on these reflections, it also became essential to consider the sertão and the discourses surrounding Brazil’s Northeast region (Albuquerque Jr., 1999, 2008, 2013; Araújo Sá, 2011, 2020, 2023). Methodologically, the study primarily focused on examining testimonies, dialogues, and scenes through the principles and procedures of social discourse analysis (Orlandi, 2002, 2007), alongside contributions from historiography on banditry. In the audiovisual productions, the main objective was to identify the agency and protagonism of women cangaceiras. The investigation further demonstrates how the testimonies of surviving participants, recorded in the documentaries, resonated in contemporary fiction, highlighting tensions between oppression and freedom, violence and resistance.