La thèse ci-après présente une étude de films amateurs, fournis par le Centre National d'Audiovisuel au Luxembourg, dit CNA. Elle examine certaines notions de sens et d’interprétation en l’absence de métadonnées et du contexte d'origine. Plutôt que de prendre le film amateur comme genre ou pratique à part, cette étude porte sur le seul langage cinématographique. La première partie de ce travail identifie ainsi des modes filmiques hautement différenciés et interprétés à partir des images. Sans contexte original, ces films perdent leur principale source de signification, à savoir les commentaires fournis par les membres de la famille. En effet, la projection du film dans le cercle familial interpelle les souvenirs et donne lieu à l’explication des évènements reproduits. La présente thèse examine ces images comme vestiges d'une narration visuelle plutôt qu'en termes de récit de souvenirs. Elle adopte le point de départ très simple que ce qui est filmé était important pour les cinéastes. De plus, elle examine comment le langage filmique peut servir comme illustration des intentions et motivations, à la fois volontaires et involontaires. Y suit l’examen des différents styles employés dans les films amateurs. J’attire l’attention sur la codification culturelle sous-jacente à la pratique de représentation dans le privé, qui prend la langue filmique comme moyen d'auto-narration. La deuxième partie aborde les films amateurs comme moyen d’expression primitif d’une tentative de signification qui implique le chercheur et sa propre expérience. La projection des films est constitutive de ce processus d'entrée en signification / The following thesis presents an examination of privately produced amateur films taken from the Amateur Film Archive in the Centre National d’Audiovisuel in Luxembourg. It analyzes how amateur films present a filmic world and examines specific notions of meaning generation without meta-data and original context. Rather than take amateur film as a homogenous genre or practice, this study concentrates on film language. The first part of the following two-fold engagement with these filmic worlds thus identifies the highly differentiated filmic modes that can be read from theimages. A filmic mode is related to as a concomitance of style and choice in subjectmatter. Without original context, these films lose their most important means ofmeaning generation, namely the recollective narratives that are constructed by theintended audience in the viewing situation. This work takes these images as remnantsof a visual narration rather than in terms of recollective narratives. It operates from the very simple basis that how the camera was used can serve as illustration of underlying intentions and motivations—both intended and inadvertent. The first partof this study then focuses on the diversification within the images and reads concomitant cultural codifications that structure representational productions in the private and also analyzes film language as means of self-narration. The second part of this two-fold engagement explores filmic language in terms of a visualization of primordial signifying expression coming-into-being. This engagement extends to include the researcher and his/her own background as co-constitutive part of this process of primordial meaning

This paper is a case study involving the documentary Artur Melo da Costa: missionary hero. The objective was to examine whether it is possible for a person turn into hero through its exposure from the film image. To flesh out the research was necessary to use oral history, literature review and empiricism. The text makes an original theoretical approach, where many works are analyzed, so we make allowances for the case study. In order to understand the process of heroicização was made a biography of Arthur Melo da Costa, who is the central object of our study. We also did an analysis on all the events that marked the construction process of the documentary, so that we can understand if, in fact, there was turn into hero Artur Melo da Costa in the community of São Luiz Gonzaga, Rio Grande do Sul. The research provides new information relevant to the community in question, so that we can understand that the construction of history is made everyday. Finally, the work serves as a reference for you to understand is how to make themselves a hero through the construction of filmic language, this case of a documentary. / Essa dissertação é um estudo de caso, envolvendo o documentário Artur Melo da Costa: um herói missioneiro. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi analisar se é possível a heroicização de uma pessoa através de sua exposição a partir de imagem fílmica. Para dar corpo à pesquisa foi necessária a utilização de história oral, revisão bibliográfica e empirismo. O texto faz uma abordagem inicial teórica, onde são analisadas várias obras, dessa forma temos subsídios para compor o estudo de caso. Para que se compreenda o processo de heroicização foi feita uma biografia de Artur Melo da Costa, que é o objeto central de nosso estudo. Também fizemos uma análise sobre todos os eventos que marcaram o processo de construção do documentário, de forma que se possa compreender se, de fato, houve a heroicização de Artur Melo da Costa na comunidade de São Luiz Gonzaga, no Rio Grande do Sul. A pesquisa traz informações inéditas e relevantes para a comunidade em questão, de forma que se possa compreender que a construção da história é feita no cotidiano. Por fim, o trabalho serve como referência para que compreenda-se como pode dar-se a construção de um herói através de linguagem fílmica, nesse caso de um documentário.