Résumé

Ghost Portraits (2023), directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, offers a deeply personal lens through which to view the city of Recife, drawing on the filmmaker’s own memories of his home, neighborhood, and formative cinematic experiences. These autobiographical elements serve as a point of departure for exploring the intersection between the transformation of Recife’s historic city center and the decline of its once-vibrant cinema culture. The film weaves together multiple layers of perception – archival footage, images filmed by the director since his youth, fictional sequences from his own work and that of others – intertwined with broader historical and social reflections on the city. By alternating documentary and fictional images from different periods, the film encourages the viewer to have a reflective and multifaceted approach to its subject. This stands in contrast to the journalistic representations that often promote hegemonic urban imaginaries.
This article explores the role of memory in the film, analyzing how cinematographic language and autobiographical storytelling engage with Recife’s socio-cultural evolution. Central questions include: How have the cycles of appreciation and neglect of downtown Recife both reflected and influenced the fate of local cinemas? In what ways have real estate speculation and cultural change contributed to cinema’s marginalization in the urban fabric? And how does the film’s use of cinematic memory enable a rereading of the historical and spatial transformations of the city? Ultimately, what does the director reveal about what once was visible in the city’s center but has since become spectral – a ghost portrait of old Recife?