Ôrí, a Poetic and Audiovisual Ritual: In Pursuit of a Lost Afro-Brazilian Identity

Abstract

Ôrí is a Brazilian documentary directed by Raquel Geber (1989) that documents the cultural exchanges between Brazil and Africa through the life of Beatriz Nascimentos (1942-1995), a historian and Black activist of Brazil’s Black Movement (mnu). The film’s narrative seeks to rebuild a black identity inside Brazil. This article analyzes the documentary from Paul Gilroy’s Black Atlantic and Stuart Hall’s Cultural Studies’ perspectives in order to show how Beatriz Nascimento’s discussion about Black identity in America (as a transnational phenomenon) and in Brazil (as a national phenomenon) is based on her studies of the quilombo concept conceived by Nascimiento as a fundamental category in the ethnic and national self-affirmation process.