Patricia Vieira is Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, in the Comparative Literature Program, and in the Film and Media Studies Program of Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA.

Portuguese Film, 1930-1960: The Staging of the New State Regime provides groundbreaking analysis of Portuguese feature films produced in the first three decades of the New State (Estado Novo), a right-wing totalitarian regime that lasted between 1933 and 1974. These films, sponsored by the National Propaganda Institute (Secretariado Nacional de Propaganda), convey a conservative image of both mainland Portugal and the country's overseas African colonies (Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and St. Thomas and Principe). The films about the mainland emphasize traditional values, the importance of obedience to authorities and a strict division of gender roles, whereby women are relegated to the domestic sphere. The Portuguese countryside, where age-old customs and a strong social hierarchy prevailed, is presented in these movies as a model for the rest of the country. The films about the colonies, in turn, underline the benefits of the Portuguese presence in Africa and portray the colonized as docile subjects to Portuguese rule.
The book includes chapter summaries in the introduction, in-depth analyses of the most important Portuguese films produced between 1930 and 1960, a discussion of the main topics of Portuguese cinema from the New State, and a comprehensive bibliography that guides students who wish to read further on a specific topic. First published in Portuguese to wide acclaim, Portuguese Film, 1930-1960: The Staging of the New State Regime fills a gap in English-language scholarship on the history of the national cinema of the Iberian peninsula. Films covered include Fatima, Land of Faith (Terra de Fe), Spell of the Empire (Feitico do Imperio), and Chaimite.

Acknowledgements
Introduction: Cinema in the New State
1. Propaganda in the New State: The May Revolution (A Revolução de Maio)
1.1. Propaganda in Portuguese Cinema
1.2. Salazar's Truth as Ideology
1.3. The Primacy of Art: António Ferro's Politics of the Spirit
1.4. The Staging of the Leader
2. Poets on the Silver Screen: Bocage, Camões, and the Heroes of the Regime
2.1. Literature and Film in the Politics of the Spirit
2.2. The Heroes of the New State
2.3. Against Political Inconstancy: The Hero as a Serious Man
3. Rural Life in Cinema: In Defense of a Natural Society
2.1. Regional and Folkloric Films
2.2. A Natural Cinema
2.3. The Countryside and the City
2.4. Capitalism, Communism, Corporatism
4. The Miracle of Salazarism: Fátima, Land of Faith (Fátima, Terra de Fé)
4.1. Fátima in the New State
4.2. Reason, Faith and Politics in Film
4.3. Balancing Reason and Religion
4.4. Beyond Reason and Faith: The Danger of Nihilism
5. Gender Stereotypes in New State Cinema
5.1. Women in New State Films
5.2. Singing as a Transgression
5.3. Fado, Fatalism and the Portuguese Femme Fatale
6. The Empire as Fetish: Spell of the Empire (Feitiço do Império)
6.1. Portugal and its Colonies
6.2. The Magic of Africa
6.3. The Empire as a Fetish
6.4. Spell of the Empire and Colonial Propaganda
7. The Spirit of the Empire in Chaimite
7.1. Spirituality and Materiality in Salazarism
7.2. The Spirit of Portuguese Colonization
7.3. The Politics of the Spirit in Chaimite
Epilogue: New State Cinema Today
Bibliography
Index