Five Documentaries Show the Background of the Impeachment

09/02/2016 - 10h43

Rousseff's lawyer in the impeachment process, José Eduardo Cardozo, entered the studio of a TV program surrounded by cameras and microphones. They belonged to the team of documentarist Petra Costa, of Minas Gerais, who followed him. "They follow me everywhere, they go to my house, my office," said Cardozo.

Petra (who filmed "Elena") is behind one of the at least five documentaries on the political crisis and the ousting of Rousseff currently being made.

"The fact that many people think that we are making a propagandistic movie bothers me a lot. This is a work full of subtleties, a record of a historical period," says Petra.

It is the same complaint made by filmmaker Maria Augusta Ramos, of Brasília. Ramos, who has made films with strong criticism, such as "Justiça", says she began to film the impeachment out of "personal angst."

Anna Muylaert ("Que Horas Ela Volta?"), César Charlone ("O Banheiro do Papa") and Lô Politi ("Jonas") joined together to produce a third documentary, led by all three filmmakers. The focus is the political crisis seen from Rousseff's perspective.

Adirley Queirós, of Goiás, who made award-wining "Branco Sai, Preto Fica," is filming the crisis out of the main stage of power. For his "Era Uma Vez Brasília", he is interviewing common people in the Brazilian capital and its satellite city of Ceilândia, where he lives.

The first director to film the crisis, Rio de Janeiro's Douglas Duarte, is taking a break from his shooting. Most the material was filmed while proceedings were still in the Lower House.

The impeachment itself was not his main target, but the portrait of "radical politicians."

Duarte eventually managed to get a credential, but saw his story about politicians engulfed by the impeachment.

Of the five movies, the projects of Duarte and Queirós are the only funded by public resources.

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

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	Alan Marques/ Folhapress
	Petra Costa is behind one of the at least five documentaries on the political crisis and the ousting of Dilma Rousseff