Abstract
This article explores the fictional feature film "Marcados para viver" (1976), by Brazilian filmmaker Maria do Rosário Nascimento e Silva (1949-2010). This film is innovative, among other reasons, for starring a character whose sexual and gender identity is not fixed in the male/female binary logic. It is based on the perspective of Allison Butler, who considers women’s cinema as "minor cinema", in which the condition of marginal, peripheral or minority allows the creative power to invent other spaces, consciousness and sensitivity. It is further complemented by Patricia White's work on "Lesbian Minor Cinema". The term "women's cinema", widely used in the 1970s, including in Brazil, to refer to films made by women, constitutes an eminently political designation, in feminist theory, to demarcate the field and certain subjects, not configuring any essentialist defense of the category "women". The article analyzes the first Brazilian fictional film made by a woman to bring a lesbian character to the screen, highlighting its reception in the Brazilian press and censorship at the time of its release.
Women’s Cinema; Minor Cinema; Lesbianism; Dictatorship