02/13/2023
By Kimberly Moreau

Lecture will be on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023 at 5 p.m. via Zoom

ABSTRACT:
This lecture will examine how Walter Salles’ acclaimed 1998 feature film "Central Station" unfolds a few intertwined personal tales to inscribe a painful but uplifting message. From a world of crime, poverty, and ignorance in Rio de Janeiro to a spiritually uplifting region of Brazil’s Northeast, the ex-teacher Dora’s uncanny development as a character reminds us of some of the key and powerful elements which enable us (or force us) to move away from indifference, to endure desperation, and to finally find hope and redemption through empathy, action, and affection.

BIO:
Apart from performing his academic duties, Dário Borim Jr. is a creative writer, a photographer, a radio producer, and a translator. At the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, he currently serves as chairperson and full professor in the Department of Portuguese, and as affiliate faculty in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program. A cronista himself, for 10 years he was the editor of the Crônicas section of the Handbook of Latin American Studies. He has been co-editor of the Tagus Press’ Brazilian Literature in Translation book series since 2018. Among other titles, his books are Crônicas Brasileiras: A Reader; the English translation of Antonio Carlos Jobim: An Illuminated Man; and the volume Perplexidades: Raça, sexo, e outras questões sociopolíticas.