Film Studies Speaker Series: Dr Mary Freedman, Queen's University, Belfast A feminine Image of the city from Rio de Janeiro's periphery: audiovisual practices, representations and imaginaries

This seminar draws from recently completed doctoral work that includes a creative practice component, situated at the intersection of audiovisual and urban studies, with a specific focus on race and gender.

The thesis questions the role of audiovisual practices and productions in socio-spatial articulations across Rio de Janeiro, exploring work by or centred on women, predominantly from the peripheral region of the Baixada Fluminense. These include female directors, cineclubistas and other protagonists who share a local lineage locating audiovisual production and its screening as a way to re-imagine territory and identity.

The seminar will map out the central themes of the research, including its grounding premise that audiovisual production can act as an interface with embodied expressions of urban imaginaries. Artist and researcher, Dr Mary Delphine Freedman, explores key moments of urban transformation in the city and situated examples, including films and cinceclube events in the Baixada. Throughout, she will show how her own practice work operated as a way of thinking through and with audiovisual material, intersecting with the theoretical development of the thesis.

Dr Mary Delphine Freedman works at the intersection of urban studies, film and gender with a regional focus on Latin America, particularly Brazil. She has a BArch from the University of Liverpool and an MRes in Latin American Studies from the University of Cambridge, and completed an interdisciplinary, portfolio-based PhD with Queen's University Belfast in 2025, in tandem with birthing and caring for three small children.