Cinema became part of the culture of the 20th century all over the world and its educational potential was soon recognized. In Portugal, the cinephilia of António Ferro, Secretary of National Propaganda/Information (1933-1949), was decisive in providing cinema with strong symbolic support, which only materialized in financial support after the end of World War II (Ó & Paz, 2022). Although cinema had been part of the violence prevention strategy (Rosas, 2019), and the leader of the Estado Novo, António de Oliveira Salazar, owed the cult of his personality to the creation of his image (Matos, 2004), his disgust for cinema was well-known (Piçarra, 2006) and he himself was recognized for his iconophobia (Gil, 2017). It's just that Salazar originally militated on the Catholic fronts, which were adamantly opposed to the advance of the dictatorship of the image.

In line with Catholic countries, although with fewer resources, conditions were also being created in Portugal for national cinematography and for the reception of films from all over the world. But the attraction for American fiction films was undeniable and unstoppable. Within the Catholic action movement led by Cardinal Cerejeira, a personal friend of Salazar, the [Catholic School Youth] Juventude Escolar Católica (JEC) organized in 1935 (and renamed later in 1980 Movimento Católico de Estudantes) soon became aware of the urgency of acting in the face of the so-called immorality of everyday life. JEC organized to respond to Pius XI's encyclical Vigilantis Cura (1936), which sought to understand the phenomenon of cinema attraction and invited a screening of films, highlighting the educational potential of the seventh art.

From the outset JEC's official magazine Flama (1937-2009) raised a Campaign for the Moralization of Cinema, as a form of pressure on the government. Several journalists, chroniclers and readers considered that the censorship schemes on national foreign filmography were insufficient and lenient, and that even the films sponsored by the Propaganda Secretariat were remiss to Catholic principles. In this cause, a new profile of cinema spectators is created, active, knowledgeable, and intervening (Paz, 2020).

However, the unexpected happens. Similar to what happened in France with young people around Action Catholique by promoting the joint viewing of films, the creation of a nominal file of films and the support of a solid opinion, Catholic youth quickly ended up forming the first active and interventionist film buffs, some of whom later emerged as film critics (Vezyroglou, 2004/5; Leveratto & Montebello, 2011).

In this paper I propose, to question the subjectification processes in which this attraction for the different and otherness was built, which was initially rejected outright. It is necessary to ask which films are recommended and rejected and on which arguments are based these statements. But the main question is: how does Flama discuss this approach and establish this approach to what is different, whether in culture, habits or religion, does allowing for a specific subjectification of education through cinema.

This approach derives from cultural history as Peter Burke (2008) conceives it, also from a settling of the visual turn (Burke, 2001; Miezner, Myers & Peim, 2005). If the history of the moving image has been the prerogative of research all over the world (Dussel & Priem, 2017), in Portugal the relationship with cinema has been mainly explored from the intentions of the government (Torgal, 2000) and in creation of a differential abyss with the colonial other (Piçarra, 2016). This work is expected to contribute to filling a gap in knowledge of cultural practices towards diversity and inclusion, whereas understanding how can an approach to otherness emerge within a strong Estado Novo’s politics for sameness (Rosas, 2019).

Starting from the magazine Flama, which exists on deposit in different libraries, we immediately chose to use the collection of the National Library of Portugal, the only one that is complete. This series of sources will also intersect with another strategy of overlapping sources, in which the identified journalistic articles will be compared with the different films, not necessarily as a source for confirming truth, but certainly as an inspiration to understand the different positionings (Miezner, Myers & Peim, 2005). On a first level, the identification of the Cinema Moralization Campaign in Flama magazine seems to take place in a strict time frame from 1937 to 1939, although it is necessary to understand its effects throughout the 1950s' since this campaign is omitted in the historiography. Apparently, this battle for morality continues, although it starts in the hardest moment of the Salazar regime, as a result of the (Civil) War in Spain that swept the Peninsula between 1936 and 1939. Understanding if the Cinema Moralization Campaign had long-term effects is important to define and extend this chronology through the 1950’s. Indeed, the end of the II World War and the consequent end of film-to-film rationing will allow production to increase and, in all respects, there is an increase in production and reception conditions for filmography (Piçarra, 2006). On second level, we will undertake the triangulation of press, film and other sources.The contents (textual and visual) of the magazine will be, whenever possible, contextualized and placed in appreciation with other sources of the time, but in methodological terms, we can speak of three differentiated and independent sources. The research, although centered on the JEC magazine, is based on the investigation, collection and content analysis of three main sources, which will be understood in triangulation (Burke, 2001): i) the Flama magazine, with a selection of all the materials relating to cinema (opinion articles, reviews, advertisements); ii) the films themselves, such as the main films set at Flama; iii) another written or filmic production by experts, such as the defense of cinema by Paiva Boléo – partially inscribed in the pages of Flama, but with its own original production. Finally, on a third level the content and image/ filme analysis ill be carried out from the systematic organization of material and, in the case of films, taking into account their audio-visual dimension (Gómez & Casanovas, 2017; Miezner, Myers & Peim, 2005).

Still in an exploratory phase of this investigation this work unfolds on two different steps. On a first phase, it is necessary to identify contextually and with some factual elements what it consisted of and how to delimit the campaign to moralize cinema launched by JEC and to understand the relationship with other groups of Catholic action in the definition of these objectives, to understand in what way he effects of this campaign in fact subjected the Catholics into the cinephilia. From the outset, it is possible to verify that the campaign's initiators are not the main authors of the film critics and chronicles, those became experts inside Flama’s editoral board. On a second level, a core of films recommended by the core of Catholic thought is evident, such as “Going My way” (1944), Bells of Saint Mary (1945) and “San Antonio” (1945), as well as a series of actors which represent a nucleus that the Catholic press allows itself to explore down to the level of intimacy (interviews, chronicles about holidays or family life), for example, Bing Crosby or Ingrid Bergman. Much less focused are national or European films. It is then from this homogeneous set of films that education through cinema could proceed, according to Catholic youth. setting an education for correct moral conduct in the midst of an immoral and uncontrolled world. This process built in a way that different but somewhat similar characters are praised and highlighted. Apparently, the great attraction is in fact exerted by North American films, fiction, comedy with content deemed appropriate for family life. Physically well-groomed men and women stand out, in particular women, and in particular women with very specific physical characteristics: blonde, white-skinned and thin. A total opposition to national daily life and colonial desire (Piçarra, 2016).

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