THE SEWING MACHINE AND THE MEMORY THREADS:

(AUTO)BIOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS ENGENDERED BY CINEMA

Abstract

The daily life, the time suspended by COVID-19, particularly in the beginning of 2020, and the contact with films and texts aroused a wave of thoughts, memories and reflections, which involved the manual arts and several women who cross my existence. The aim of this text is to reflect on lived experiences, engendered by the encounter with some cultural artifacts, especially the film Seamstresses (2018) (Costureiras, in Portuguese), and rethink aspects of my non-school education and the way I was forged by the encounter with the manual arts. What does the manual arts, a still feminine doing, teach us and forge us as people in the world? In what way, does the sewing machine connect me to so many women and stories of my life? I report fragments of an autobiography, which were awakened by the encounter with films.I resort to memories, due to the temporal distance of experiences, to recall important aspects of my formation as a person, crossed by many women and their arts, highlighting, among so many learning, to dismantle and do again, every time it is necessary; to be careful with others and with oneself; to pay attention to small gestures; and to seek and see beauty in the simple things, in the little things of life.