Herbert Duschenes’ Amateur Exilic Films: Cinematic and Social Territories in the Family Film Ronny – 1949-1950

Abstract

In this article, we ponder how exile impacts the act of filming and its results in amateur filmmaking. I do so by studying the family films made by Herbert Duschenes, a German, partly Jewish architect and art history lecturer who moved to Brazil in 1940. I specifically analyze a sequence of the short film Ronny – 1949-1950 (1950), part of his earlier work focusing on the family he started in São Paulo. Thus, I address the sensitive relationship between the native household help that appears on camera and their European employer behind it, by bringing to light the interaction between the African-Brazilian nannies and the family they assist, and the blurry boundaries regarding the place these servants occupy not only in the home and society, but in the frame.