Images of the Amazon: between cinema and school geography

Abstract

This text is the result of a research project entitled “School screens: cinema and teachers of Geography” carried out by the International Research Network “Images, Geographies, and Education” with teachers of Geography in basic education. Based on the results of the research, we present a reflection on the images that appear in the films cited about the Amazon. The absence of films about the northern region marks the interest of this investigation. As school Geography treats the northern region and the Amazon almost as a synonym, we direct our investigation to images of the Amazon. Based on specific responses to the questionnaire, research on textbooks and cinematographic productions mentioned, we problematize the relationships that are established between cinema and Geography teachers. The research revealed that Geography teachers use films to illustrate and represent content and geographic themes, that is, cinema is taken as a didactic resource, a document from an educational perspective based on the transmission of information. Although we have observed a diversity of images of the Amazon, the force of repetition is much more poignant; both the images of the continental forest and the growing deforestation embody a contradiction that does not allow us to think of space as multiplicity.

KEYWORDS: Imagens of the Amazon. Cinema. School Geography.