Cinema e educação representação, homossexualidade e juventude em Prayers for Bobby (2009)

Abstract

A result of the excellent reproduction technique. The cinema emerges in modernity possibilitying new visions, new perspectives in the midst of a process of rupture, in which worship dedicated to the piece of art gives way to reproducibility. The cinema, in turn, not only forms mentalities in societies, but also, operates as a cultural artifact, that is, through a myriad of moving images. The visions are educated culturally, socially and politically. Thus, under this interpretive bias, in which the film is taken from the perspective of cultural pedagogy, it is intended, through the present dissertation entitled "Cinema and Education. Representation, Homosexuality and Youth in Prayers for Bobby (2009) " to analyze the representations of homosexuality and gender, considering the relevance of looking at the aesthetic, narrative, socio-historical, and cultural elements emerging in the filmic context and beyond. This research is linked to the Postgraduate Program in Education (PPGEdu / CUR / UFMT), Campus of Rondonópolis and is inserted in the research line Childhood, Youth and Contemporary Culture: rights, policies and diversity. We search methodologically to define the present paper, in the theoretical assumptions defended by Douglas Kellner (2001), from the slope of the British School of Cultural Studies. Kellner believes that cultural studies of the media help in understanding, interpreting and criticizing texts produced and conveyed by the media itself. Thus, Cultural Studies delineate how cultural productions articulate ideologies, values, and representations of sex, race, and class in society. This dissertation makes use of a theoretical body that mainly covers the Cultural Studies of Media and Education and the Studies of Gender and Sexuality. The work pays attention at the movement of the text to its context and, as such, is subdivided: the first chapter presents essential elements for the understanding of film composition. The second, discusses religious conservatism still dominant in the United States of America. The temporal cut occurs from the 1980s and extends to the present century. The third addresses the Cultural Studies of Media and Education. Cinema is articulated to education, under the bias of Cultural Pedagogy and is also understood as social practice. The fourth and fifth chapters attempt to analyze representations of gender and sexuality, from some scenes of the film. Finally, in the final credits are taken up some questions and dialogues undertaken in previous chapters, noting that the film Prayers for Bobby (2009) directed by Russel Mulcahy, produced by the US-based pay TV channel Lifetime, fulfills the purpose of passing the message of redemption , of resignification of the thought of a conservative mother, who assumes activist of the gay cause after the suicide of her son. Despite this, in some scenes the stereotyped representation of gay circuits and the fragility and vulnerability of the same-sex relationship denounce prejudice and homophobia so latent in society. The proposed study, therefore, becomes considerable, as the return to the Reagan era helps to intensify the debate that religious conservatism and the rightist wave are now unfolding through the propagation of hate speech and homophobic, misogynist, and racists who are being perpetrated.