Velho Chico and its cultural edges: the poetic voices of the Canoe Sidó and other fantastic characters of San Francisco river in the movie Espelho d’água

Abstract

Through the imaginary waters of Velho Chico, a series of stories navigate, many of which are composed of fantastic characters like Mãe d'Água, o Nego d`Água, o Minhocão  and others. The film Espelho d`'gua: a trip in San Francisco River (2004), directed by Marcus Vinicius Cezar, will be used as corpus of analysis, in which the character Sidó, an old canoe, stands out as narrator along with other fantastic character, through their poetic voices, weave the enveloping plot of the film narrative.Such characters directly influence the lives of most riverine people, who take the teachings and examples of narratives as models of conduct and experience. Like this, it is intended to reflect on the moralizing nature, the importance and the place of ideological representation that these characters and narratives occupy in these riverside communities, once, being of collective authorship, also present in a collective memory, directly contribute to the maintenance of traditions and the construction of cultural identities. Such characters are part of a diverse cultural plot, which is situated, as says Jerusa Pires, at the edges, but which, by its strength, has been steadily moving towards a recognition center. As methodological procedures, it was supported by the reading of theorists who discuss memory, identities, culture, fantastic narratives and other relevant contributions. Then, the film was analyzed, when it was intended to read more detailedly these fantastic characters associating them with their role and importance in the riverside culture. In addition, it is also worthy the experience of the author of this paper, who is a researcher of oral narratives, similar to those brought in this film, having developed qualitative and ethnographic research in the region of Xique-Xique, Bahia. Lastly, one can conclude that these fantastic characters, present in the movie or even in the oral narratives analyzed, make part of the the daily life of the riverine in Velho Chico, and become members of these communities, in which their vast majority, as can be seen from the film and also from testimonials collected in Xique-Xique, bring a testimony of stories they have lived or heard about such characters.