The Body on Stage and on Screen: Between Visibility and Capture

Critical Regards

Transversal Dialogues

The Body on Stage and on Screen: Between Visibility and Capture

WITH Alberto Álvares and Aretha Sadick

MODERATED BY Heitor Augusto

SYNOPSIS

Alberto Álvares and Aretha Sadick engage in a dialogue about the power of the gaze: who frames, who is framed, and what happens when a body refuses the position of object. Between image and presence, the panel discusses how visibility can turn into capture, exotification, fetish, curiosity—and how art can reorganize this relationship. At the center of the conversation is process: ways of constructing image and performance that return the gaze to the audience and shift how we see.

BACKGROUND

Alberto Álvares is a PhD candidate in the Graduate Program in Film and Audiovisual Studies at UFF. An Indigenous filmmaker of the Guarani Nhandewa people, he was born in the Porto Lindo village (MS), Brazil. A Guarani teacher and translator, he leads filmmaking training programs for Indigenous filmmakers in villages including Guarani Mbya, Nhandeva, Kaiowá, and Ava Guarani. He works in creative direction, cinematography, screenwriting, editing, and translation. He has directed more than 20 documentaries, including Os Verdadeiros Líderes Espirituais, O Sonho de Fogo, Yvy Pyte, and the series O Futuro da Terra.

Aretha Sadick is inclassifiable. A multidisciplinary artist, she explores the re-enchantment of things as poetics in her work, committing each artistic gesture as an offering placed within the folds of time to rekindle the vital energy of the world.

Heitor Augusto works in film as a curator, creative consultant, professor, and researcher. His practice investigates Black filmmaking holistically, with particular interest in critically examining the binary of positive versus negative representation. In addition to Brazil, he has developed projects in Germany, Canada, the United States, and France. In 2025, he was one of the invited film curators for the public program Fluxo de Imagens e Imaginários at the 36th Bienal de São Paulo.