Name: SUELEM CRISTINA DOS SANTOS
Publication date: 19/11/2025
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| ADRIANNA MACHADO MENEGUELLI | Examinador Externo |
| MICHELE FREIRE SCHIFFLER | Presidente |
| VITOR CEI SANTOS | Examinador Interno |
Summary: This dissertation aims to discuss Gilberto Gil’s resistance performance, taking as one of its
starting points the documentary Os Doces Bárbaros. Directed by Jon Tob Azulay, the film
explores the historical political context behind Gil’s arrest for marijuana possession in 1976.
The song “Sandra”, from the album Refavela (1977), produced by the composer a year after
the episode, continues the story and makes explicit the relationship between media in Gilberto
Gil’s work, drawing attention to the importance of the archive. Gil’s entire musical repertoire
before, during and after the documentary reinforces the power of Afro-diasporic culture. In
addition to musical and poetic genres, the artist has produced and continues to produce
numerous audiovisual works, mainly related to themes such as blackness and resistance.
Therefore, besides using the performance theory, the research focuses on studies regarding
concepts such as “interarts” and “intermediality”, encompassing the understanding of the
theory of laughter, necessary for the analysis of the trial scene, and of theories surrounding the
concept of blackness. From the moment 22min/45s to 43min/25s, the documentary exposes
Gil’s ambivalent laughter in a hostile environment. Ironic, sarcastic, calm, firm, angry,
thoughtful: every movement of his body is a speech. In front of the judges, of the audience
watching the trial and also of the viewers, the composer uses his body as a canvas for his
resistance. Starring Bahians Gil, Gal Costa, Maria Bethânia and Caetano Veloso, the
documentary presents an anti-conservative poetic-musical repertoire, even with AI-5 in force.
They highlight, in their artistic-musical representations, the influence of Africa on Brazilian
culture, incorporating representations of the mythical world of religions of African origin in
their performances.
