Existing is resisting: a decolonial path on brazilian audiovisual ‘Medida Provisória’

Abstract

Drawing a decolonial turn from a non-Iberian perspective, this essay explores the Brazilian dystopian audiovisual narrative ‘Medida Provisória’ through the lens of decoloniality, and the representative symbol of malandragem. In this analysis, the paper aims to subvert the mainstream locus of enunciation by putting the marginalized identities as the departure point and analyzing, through a decolonial frame, a different portrayal of malandragem in audiovisual. Understanding it as an act of resistance towards a society inside the modernity-coloniality way of thinking, the movie opposes the mainstream perpetuation of the problematic social classification of people we have settled today. Opening a dialogue between a decolonial dystopia and a colonial reality narrative, defying the dominant oppressive order, reinforcing African-Brazilian culture, and embodying a Brasil that can never be white or European. Malandragem is the response of an invented people that will keep reinventing themselves to be seen and valued within their terms.