Notes from a debate

chorality as a genre, principle of creation and mark of authorality in Rootless (2017)

Abstract

The article addresses the film Rootless (Sem Raiz, 2017), made by Coletivo Tela Suja and Desalambrar Filmes, discussing its research, creation and production process as a characteristic of the chorality found in collective practices of contemporary Latin American cinema. It also observes how the debate on female entrepreneurship, manifested as precarious, lonely, desperate work and encouraged by neoliberal capitalism, is presented in the film through the cinematographic language that is constructed as an aesthetic/political choice for social criticism, in the portrait of working women in the city and in the countryside, as well as its multi-protagonist narrative structure, inscribing it as a possible example of the choral film genre. By stressing the idea of chorality as a cinematographic genre, creative principle and also as a mark of authorality, the article pays attention to the specificities of contemporary Latin American cinema and its collective and collaborative production modes.