Situating HIV/AIDS Humanitarian Film in the National Cinema Culture of Mozambique: Historical, Contemporary and Feminist Perspectives

The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Mozambique has enabled a new wave of humanitarian cinema to develop as it seeks to educate and empower a population that has been adversely affected by the epidemic. Colonial-era patriarchal systems that persist have resulted in Mozambican women being disproportionately impacted by the virus, and humanitarian projects in turn use film as a vehicle for the exploration of Mozambican women’s subjectivities. Thus, these films have made for an especially feminist reconditioning of Mozambican national cinema culture. This essay will explore HIV/AIDS humanitarian cinema’s place within the larger discourse of Mozambican national cinema and will demonstrate how the humanitarian films are successful in their nuanced depictions of Mozambican subjectivities. Besides offering epidemiological pedagogy, these films address the Mozambican spectator with a feminist message that highlights domestic social issues, such as disparities in levels of poverty and education, entrenched gender norms, sex work, migration and cross-generational hierarchies. Additionally, this essay will theorize a nascent Mozambican women’s cinema that differs from the historical representation of women during the development of Mozambican national cinema, which marginalized the representation of gender difference to advance instead a flawed notion of a homogenous postcolonial national identity