Utility, amateur, orphan and ephemeral films: rethinking cinema through the “other films”

Abstract

Film studies have largely been built on the fiction film, within a paradigm that has been predominantly aesthetic, auteur-centred and national.  Although they make up the largest part of the world film production, non-fiction films – a broad category that includes different formats and genres – have been systematically left out of canonical film histories and historiographies, national and international. This introduction to the special issue ‘Other Films’ tracks down the emergence, in the 1990s, of critical perspectives that enabled a positive reappraisal of these films and, consequently, their study. Bearing in mind this international context, we take stock of the current situation in Portugal and Brazil. With its 6 articles (mostly on amateur films and newsreels), this special issue aims to launch a wider debate about the way these “other films” may (ought to?) force us to rethink the study of cinema and the moving images.