Between Image and Word: Minority Discourses and Community Construction in Eduardo Coutinho’s Documentaries

At a time when Brazilian film has attained international recognition, Eduardo Coutinho’s work has become a reference not only in documentary filmmaking but also in the broader panorama of Brazilian cinema. This chapter analyzes two of Coutinho’s documentaries: Boca de lixo (The Scavengers, 1992) and Babilônia 2000 (Babylon 2000, 2001). It aims to investigate how the marginalized communities captured in both films are represented and to observe the processes involved in the construction of an identity through the representation of spaces of poverty in Brazil. Both documentaries, separated by almost ten years, are constructed through a dialogue between the characters and the director. Exploring different themes and set in different locations, Boca de lixo and Babilônia 2000 both bring issues of performance, image production and documentary practice to the fore