Resumo

We present the motivations, processes and unfolding of a summer course oriented towards producing autobiographical narratives in the context of a collective creation process in audiovisual. The project addressed health and social work professionals at the Joaquim Venâncio Polytechnic School of Health / EPSJV of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation / Fiocruz, Brazil. It was conducted in two parts: first, a theoretical-practical series of meetings online in which we discussed the history, current practices, and the epistemological, ethical, aesthetic and political foundations of participatory audiovisual ethnographies and autobiographical expressions in the arts and film; the other part was focused on carrying out a creative workshop in the hybrid format, bringing together participants from many cities and regions of Brazil. The proposal dialogues with several references in the arts and cinema, particularly with the film We Can’t Go Home Again by Nicholas Ray. By offering a view on this project in its origins and practices concerning autobiographical practices, focusing on nurturing the creative process of those social agents and older adults, we conclude that the autobiographical expression built collectively for audiovisual language opens possibilities for interaction and artistic experimentation that call for other ways and reasons for making cinema, since by telling and listening to themselves and others, the participants deeply engage with the experiences of living, expanding the senses, and creating new meanings for their life stories to the point of turning them into art so they can be seen, heard and connected through creating their images and narratives.