CIMS member Ryan Brandão successfully defended his doctoral dissertation

On the 6^th May, 2024, CIMS affiliated member Ryan Brandão successfully defended his doctoral dissertation “The cinematographomania affects the Princess of Minas: early cinema in Juiz de Fora (1897-1910)”. This Joint PhD was supervised by Prof. João Luiz Vieira (Fluminense Federal University/UFF, Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Prof. Daniel Biltereyst (CIMS, UGent).

Ryan Brandão’s doctoral dissertation gathered information about the early cinema in Juiz de Fora – a city located in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The period analyzed spans from 1897 to 1910, a time characterized by the proliferation of travelling exhibitors and the construction of the first permanent movie theaters in its central area – such as Cinema Juiz de Fora (1908), Cinema Pharol (1910), and Polytheama (1910). This investigation aligns with the objectives of New Cinema History, which have been proposing a revision of the hegemonic view of film history over the past few decades, in order to decentralize the more traditional focus on films and their directors and to give importance to other aspects related to distribution, exhibition, and reception, in a variety of economic, cultural, and social contexts.

The examination board consisted of Prof. João Luiz Vieira (supervisor at UFF), Prof. Daniel Biltereyst (supervisor at UGent), Prof. Philippe Meers (University of Antwerp, Belgium), Prof. Alessandra Souza Melett Brum (UFJF), Prof. Rafael de Luna Freire (UFF), and Prof. Talitha Gomes Ferraz (ESPM-Rio / UFF).