Angles: Women Working in Film and Video (1994)

ee ey Hope in the South Bronx; Xuxamania in Brazil BY Heh ROR Lb EF heryl Miller’s documentary in progress, I’m Doin’ Good, profiles several young people from the South Bronx. Set against the backdrop of their neighborhood, where drug dealing and violence are commonplace, the subjects talk about their hopes and dreams. The 12-year project began when Miller was making a film about the work of poet/teacher Suzi Mee. Seven children in her class — four Latino and three African-Americans — were profiled. The filming took place in their school and neighborhood over the span of two weeks. An additional week was spent recording sequences of the children and their families in their homes. “These children expressed with great candor the normal joys, fears, feelings and imagination of childhood, juxtaposed against the harsh realities of crime, burning buildings, attempted rape, sas and other atrocities that they —e witnessed growing up in the Bronx,” writes Miller. With I’m Doin’ Good Miller follows the growth and development of the seven students from age 12 through age 24. “These young people convey their own powerful expressions of love, friendship and family life. They reveal a strong sense of pride in themselves from having chosen to triumph rather than succumb to the evils of their environment,” Miller continues. “The objective of our film is to demonstrate that despite the surrounding conditions, these students were able to make positive choices in their lives.” “?’'m Doin’ Good” Miller heads her own production company, Avatar International. She was part of the American peace delegation to Baghdad and covered its activities for “Video Diaries” on BBC2. Her film, The Road to Peace, is about solutions to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. Miller also was on the staff of ABC’s “20/20.” For more information: Sheryl Miller, 160 West End Ave., Suite 12N, New York, NY 10023. 212/496-0573. Fax: 212/721-4749. The Xuxa Show In a new book, Xuxa: The Mega-Marketing of Gender, Race and Modernity, Amelia Simpson analyzes the rise to stardom of Brazil’s superstar Xuxa. The story — including her acting career in soft porn movies, posing for Playboy 4 @ ANGLES R-O-B 6B 1 NS and her celebrated affair with Pelé — reads like a soap opera, but it’s one with political and social significance. The blond Xuxa reaches millions of people in Latin America and the United States via her children’s television show which dictates standards for what constitutes happiness, beauty, and success. The “Xou da Xuxa” on TV Globo is broadcast in 16 countries in Latin America and on Univision in the U.S. Her empire includes a monthly magazine, clothes, shoes, shampoo, cosmetics, jewelry, school supplies, soup, yogurt and cookies. What propels this success is a persona that combines sex and domesticity, writes Simpson. “‘Xuxa is the embodiment of the ideal women, fully dedicated to courting male interest through behavior designed to be sexually stimulating, and at the same time deeply devoted to the task of caring for children. Her caretaker role is enacted literally on the television screen, where she is shown surrounded by adoring children, and symbolically in her role as ‘Queen of Kids’ and national spokesperson for the Brazilian child. Xuxa’s erotic performance on children’s television maintains the sex symbol image she developed earlier in her days as a Playboy model and soft-porn movie actress. By stressing the elements of aggressive eroticism and compliant domesticity, Xuxa’s narrative affirms dominant views of gender roles.” Why so much attention to a television star? Simpson contends that Xuxa’s image registers a history of attitudes about gender and race that are not unique to Brazil. “These attitudes find expression the world over in a variety of manifestations,” writes Simpson, who teaches in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Florida. She draws a parallel between Xuxa, Madonna, Barbie dolls, sex toys and the passive, blond feminine ideal that prevails worldwide. The writer touches on gender, race and changing social patterns in Brazil and elsewhere in this amusing, thought-provoking and richly detailed text. For more information: Temple University Press, Philadelphia, PA 19122. 215/204-8787. Fax: 215/204-4719.