Visit of guest researcher Roberto Abdala Júnior, 15.11.-15.12.2021

Roberto Abdala Júnior is professor at the Faculty of History of the Universidad Federal de Goiás - UFG (Goiânia - Brasilien). He conducts research on audiovisual narratives, as well as on the construction of history and reality in film and television. One of his research topics is the incorporation of real historical images and archival materials into the fictional plot of the mini-series Anos Rebeldes. The research stay at GUMELAB focused on the production of Brazilian telenovelas and series such as Anos Rebeldes and O bem amado, which were analyzed by Roberto within the socio-political context of the country. The construction of memories and the effects on the political participation of society were central to the analysis. These shape, to no small extent, a part of the historical consciousness. Theories by Jörn Rüsen and Mikhail Bakhtin helped to categorize theoretically the reception of audiovisual formats by the audience. Roberto's visit succeeded in initiating discussions about audiovisual narratives in the Brazilian context, which differs from previous GUMELAB case studies from Chile and Colombia. Along with a joint analysis of individual sequences from Anos Rebeldes, the GUMELAB team, joined by Roberto and Colombian scholar Gicela Andrea Aguirre García, analyzed the first episode of Pablo Escobar-el Patrón del Mal from an international and interdisciplinary perspective. Thus, the group reflected on cultural peculiarities of the different productions. A joint visit to the Deutschen Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen in Berlin helped to place film and television in the media landscape in terms of time and development.