Entre História e Cinema: Uma Análise do Filme Ganga Zumba, de Cacá Diegues (1963)

Abstract

This article proposes an analysis of the feature film *Ganga Zumba* (1964), directed by Carlos Diegues, conducted through a dialogue between history and cinema. The general objective is to understand how the work constructs a critical discourse regarding slavery, Black resistance, and narratives about the *Quilombo dos Palmares*, operating as a discursive agent within the ideological struggles of Brazil prior to the 1964 military coup. Methodologically, the study relies on qualitative film analysis, drawing upon concepts from history and cinematic language, based on the work of scholars such as Mônica Kornis (1992) and José D’Assunção Barros (2008). The analysis demonstrates that the film breaks with traditional modes of representing Black people in national cinema by repositioning the enslaved subject as the absolute protagonist of their own political emancipation. Furthermore, the study concludes that the film’s aesthetic elements—such as the contrast between light and shadow (chiaroscuro), dialectical editing, and the soundtrack by Moacir Santos—function as expressive devices aligned with the *Cinema Novo* movement. Thus, the utopian quest for Palmares transforms into an allegory for the popular fronts active at the time of the film's production, engaging directly with demands for "Basic Reforms," ​​the mobilizations of the Peasant Leagues, and the need to transform the country's archaic land tenure structure—the latter being an issue that remains pressing in Brazil today.