Eduardo Coutinho, Jacques Rancière and the elaboration of the sensitive world of the anonymous

Abstract

This paper employs the method of equality to juxtapose the philosophical practices of Jacques Rancière with the documentary practices of Brazilian filmmaker Eduardo Coutinho. We observe a turning point, to some extent shared by both, which involved a break with the more common modes of political action within the left-wing field of the 1960s, leading them to engage in a politics involved in the elaboration  sensitive world of the anonymous. We emphasize how, after this reconfiguration of their political horizons, language assumes a central role in both the philosopher's and the filmmaker's trajectories. We analyze how the film Twenty Years Later (1984) represents a turning point in the filmmaker's trajectory. Next, we underline the temporal operations that govern the conception of the film Peões (2004) and their implications for the role played by the anonymous individuals interviewed on this occasion. We demonstrate how, for both of them, the political task lies in a process of disidentification. Finally, we elucidate the ways in which both Eduardo Coutinho and Jacques Rancière distance themselves from the pedagogical becoming of documentary images, where politics is not limited to the messages conveyed by the latter, but by the reframing they are capable of promoting.