Video, Feminism and Television: A Trajectory of the Brazilian Feminist Collective Lilith Video, 1983–1988

Abstract

This article examines the television work made by Lilith Video (1983–1988), active in the city of São Paulo, and one of the first feminist video collectives in Brazil. Lilith was founded by Jacira Melo, Márcia Meireles, and Silvana Afram, producing documentaries and the unprecedented Feminino Plural, a series of five episodes, each one focused on an aspect of the everyday life of Brazilian women. In 1987, TV Cultura public television broadcast the series twice. Feminino Plural still remains perhaps the only feminist programme ever made by an independent collective to go on air. We start by situating the works of the group within Brazilian and international literature; we highlight the ways in which its history interweaves video art, television production, and feminist social movements in immediate Brazilian post-dictatorship. As we move to the analysis of the series, we discuss how the combination of testimony, dramatization, archive, and voice over allowed for a sensible approach to private issues in the virtual public space. By mapping Feminino Plural’s intersectional connections, this article suggests the ways in which the series helped to expand the scope of what was possible for women, understood as plural, opened to colour, class, age, and geographic regions.