{"id":558329,"date":"2025-08-25T20:54:43","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T23:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=558329"},"modified":"2025-08-25T20:54:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T23:54:43","slug":"researchers-recover-lost-films-on-the-brazilian-military-dictatorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/researchers-recover-lost-films-on-the-brazilian-military-dictatorship\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers recover lost films on the Brazilian military dictatorship"},"content":{"rendered":"

A film made by 14 political prisoners during a hunger strike at Frei Caneca prison in Rio de Janeiro, in August 1979\u2014at the height of Brazil\u2019s military dictatorship (1964\u20131985)\u2014was given a second chance at public screening last year. A\u00e7\u00facar, \u00e1gua e sal<\/em> (Sugar, water, and salt), a 15-minute short film, has been available since March on the YouTube channel run by Pr\u00e1ticas do Contra-arquivo, a research group at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RJ).<\/p>\n

When they shot the film in 1979, the prisoners hoped to pressure Brazil\u2019s National Congress to expand the scope of the Amnesty Law it was about to vote on. They had access to a handheld camera, originally allowed inside to film the birthday of one prisoner\u2019s son during a visiting day, and later used it to record testimonials and scenes from the hunger strike. The film negatives were smuggled out of the prison. A friend of the prisoners took on the task of filming street protests and assembling the final cut. The film\u2019s title refers to the homemade saline solution that some prisoners drank to survive the strike.<\/p>\n

After 32 days, the prisoners ended their protest without seeing their demands met. The film was only completed after the Amnesty Law had been approved\u2014too late to influence the vote\u2014and was publicly screened just once, in 1999, at a meeting of former resistance members. Decades later, a growing scholarly interest in footage shot by both professional and amateur filmmakers during Brazil\u2019s military dictatorship\u2014when political repression and censorship stifled the circulation of such images\u2014led to the film\u2019s reemergence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope to recover images the military regime never wanted to be seen,\u201d says Patr\u00edcia Furtado Mendes Machado, a professor at PUC-Rio and head of Pr\u00e1ticas do Contra-arquivo. The original negatives of A\u00e7\u00facar, \u00e1gua e sal<\/em> are housed in Brazil\u2019s National Archives in rather poor condition. But Machado managed to obtain a digitized copy from former guerrilla fighter Paulo Roberto Jabur, one of the prisoners who wielded the camera back in 1979.<\/p>\n

The short film contains rare glimpses of political prisoners\u2019 daily lives during a pivotal moment in Brazil\u2019s democratic opening\u2014while also exposing the deep tensions that defined the regime\u2019s final years. The Amnesty Law allowed exiled politicians and activists to return home and shielded state agents who had committed torture and murder. But it excluded those convicted of robberies, kidnappings, and terrorist acts. The prisoners who staged the 1979 hunger strike were serving time for such charges and would have to fight lengthy court battles to win their release.<\/p>\n

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Cinemateca Brasileira<\/span>Former guerrilla fighter In\u00eas Etienne Romeu (left<\/em>) with actress Norma Bengell on the day of her release in 1979Cinemateca Brasileira<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

With funding from the Rio de Janeiro State Research Foundation (FAPERJ), Machado and her team launched a project in 2023 to build an archive of images made outside state control\u2014material that can challenge not only the dictatorship\u2019s official narrative but also other dominant accounts of that period. Machado calls this collection a \u201ccounter-archive,\u201d borrowing a term from a Canadian research network focused on preserving the audiovisual memory of marginalized groups, including Indigenous peoples, Black communities, women, immigrants, and LGBTQ+ individuals.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian researchers also adopted a methodology developed by French historian Sylvie Lindeperg, of Universit\u00e9 Panth\u00e9on-Sorbonne in Paris, in her study on Night and Fog<\/em> (1956), a documentary on the Holocaust by French director Alain Resnais (1922\u20132014). \u201cBeyond analyzing the films, we investigated the historical context in which these images were created to understand how they survived and how they\u2019ve been reinterpreted over time,\u201d says Machado, who authored the book Cinema de arquivo: Imagens e mem\u00f3ria da ditadura militar<\/em> (Archive films: Images and memory of the military dictatorship; Sagarana, 2024), based on her doctoral thesis defended at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in 2016. In her book, she examines the complex journeys of images like those shot by filmmaker Eduardo Escorel and journalist and film critic Jos\u00e9 Carlos Avellar (1936\u20132016) during the funeral procession of Edson Lu\u00eds de Lima Souto (1950\u20131968).<\/p>\n

Edson Lu\u00eds, a student killed by riot police during a protest in Rio de Janeiro in March 1968, became a symbol of resistance, and his death sparked outrage across the country.<\/p>\n

Escorel left the film reels with a friend working at the cinematheque of Rio\u2019s Museum of Modern Art (MAM) and was only able to recover them in 2007, alongside footage shot by Jos\u00e9 Carlos Avellar. During her research, Patr\u00edcia Machado discovered that some of these scenes were later used in short films about torture in Brazil, produced between 1969 and 1970 by French filmmaker Chris Marker (1921\u20132012). Documents she located suggest that the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) was likely the source of this material.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were international solidarity networks that helped circulate these films at festivals and in underground circuits, hoping to generate international pressure against Brazil\u2019s dictatorship,\u201d says Carolina Amaral de Aguiar, a historian at the Institute of International Relations (IRI) of the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP). Aguiar researched Marker\u2019s collaborations with Cuban filmmakers in her doctoral dissertation, defended at USP in 2013.<\/p>\n

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1964, antecedentes<\/em>\u2009\/\u2009Source Unknown\u2009\/\u2009National Archive<\/span>Troops moving toward Rio de Janeiro following the onset of the 1964 coup, from footage preserved in the National Archives1964, antecedentes<\/em>\u2009\/\u2009Source Unknown\u2009\/\u2009National Archive<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Additional evidence of these transnational networks was recently uncovered by historian Marcos Napolitano, also from USP, in a Soviet newsreel aired just days after Brazil\u2019s 1964 military coup. The six-minute, soundless footage is now available on the Russian platform Net-Film. While some shots are similar to images circulated by Brazilian newsreels of the era, others appear unique. Among the images that caught Napolitano\u2019s attention were scenes of clashes between the Brazilian military and demonstrators protesting the coup in downtown Rio de Janeiro. \u201cWe don\u2019t know who captured these images or how they ended up in the Soviet Union, but they reveal the extent of resistance to the coup in its earliest moments, which was minimized by official accounts and the mainstream press in 1964,\u201d says Napolitano.<\/p>\n

As part of a thematic research project funded by FAPESP, Napolitano is currently reviewing television news programs produced by the now-defunct TV Tupi<\/em> network. He hopes to explore how the broadcaster covered the days immediately following the military takeover. The vast archives kept by TV Tupi<\/em>, which went bankrupt and off the air in 1980, were transferred in 1987 to the Brazilian Cinematheque in S\u00e3o Paulo. Among its holdings are 150,000 news reports aired between 1950 and 1974, of which 77,000 have been cataloged so far. Yet only a small portion has been digitized. Historian Eduardo Morettin, who heads the project from the Department of Cinema at the School of Communications and Arts (ECA) at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP), says the team hopes to contribute at least 200 hours of newly digitized, previously unavailable footage to the Cinematheque\u2019s collection\u2014roughly 10% of what is currently accessible. \u201cThis material can shed light on how Brazilian television shaped public memory of these events and influenced the political debates of the military era,\u201d Morettin explains.<\/p>\n

The PUC-Rio research group has also been working on several parallel research fronts. One of them is exploring films made by women during the dictatorship, following an extensive survey of multiple archives led by independent researcher Nayla Guerra, a cultural producer at the Brazilian Cinematheque. Drawing on a FAPESP-funded undergraduate research project at ECA-USP, conducted between 2019 and 2021, Guerra uncovered records of 222 short films made by 121 women filmmakers during the dictatorship. She compiled her findings into the book Entre apagamentos e resist\u00eancias: Curtas-metragens feitos por diretoras brasileiras (1966\u20131985)<\/em> (Between erasure and resistance: Short films by Brazilian women directors [1966\u20131985]), published by Alameda last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe existence of these films shows that women played a prominent role in resisting the regime,\u201d says Thais Continentino Blank, of the Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Getulio Vargas Center for Research and Documentation of Contemporary Brazilian History (CPDOC-FGV) in Rio de Janeiro. In collaboration with Patr\u00edcia Machado, Blank has also been researching the biography of actress and filmmaker Norma Bengell (1935\u20132013), a feminist activist and outspoken defender of political prisoners during the dictatorship.<\/p>\n

In 1974, Norma Bengell joined forces in France to produce a short film about In\u00eas Etienne Romeu (1942\u20132015), a former guerrilla fighter who had spent 96 harrowing days imprisoned in Casa da Morte (\u201cHouse of Death\u201d)\u2014a clandestine torture center in Petr\u00f3polis, Rio de Janeiro\u2014and later served time in a regular prison. The film, created by a feminist collective called As Insubmusas and directed by renowned French actress Delphine Seyrig (1932\u20131990), was screened at festivals as part of a campaign for Etienne Romeu\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

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Cinema de Arquivo: ImagenseE Mem\u00f3ria da Ditadura Militar<\/em>\u2009\/ Courtesy of\u2009Sagarana Editora<\/span>The funeral procession and burial of student Edson Lu\u00eds, filmed by Eduardo Escorel in 1968Cinema de Arquivo: ImagenseE Mem\u00f3ria da Ditadura Militar<\/em>\u2009\/ Courtesy of\u2009Sagarana Editora<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Romeu was finally freed in 1979, following Brazil\u2019s Amnesty Law, and her first moments of freedom were captured on film by Bengell, who met her in person for the first time that very day. Shot on a Super 8 camera, the nearly 11-minute film was preserved in Bengell\u2019s personal archive, which was later acquired by the Brazilian Cinematheque. Digitized in 2022, this rare footage is now publicly accessible via the Cinematheque\u2019s Cultural Content Bank, hosted on its website.<\/p>\n

Historians exploring the period have also made new discoveries by revisiting materials produced by the military regime itself. One such scholar is Fernando Seliprandy of the Federal University of Paran\u00e1 (UFPR). During his FAPESP-funded postdoctoral research at ECA-USP, completed in 2023, Seliprandy analyzed two films preserved at Brazil\u2019s National Archives, both made in 1972 to celebrate the 150th<\/sup> anniversary of Brazil\u2019s independence.<\/p>\n

One film was directed by journalist, politician, and businessman Amaral Netto (1921\u20131995) and funded by cooking gas distributors. The other was sponsored by Souza Cruz, then a major cigarette manufacturer. \u201cThese films reveal how the military regime\u2019s official propaganda relied on private producers and corporate sponsorships to maximize its reach,\u201d says Seliprandy.<\/p>\n

According to researchers interviewed for this article, Brazil\u2019s National Archives hold an enormous trove of still-untapped material, much of it yet to be cataloged. Among these neglected collections is a set of amateur films assembled in the 1980s by Clovis Molinari Junior (1953\u20132019), a longtime staff member of the institution.<\/p>\n

One highlight of the collection is a 31-minute film that documents key events leading up to the 1964 military coup, including the movements of troops rebelling against President Jo\u00e3o Goulart (1919\u20131976), and the waves of civil unrest that followed his overthrow. \u201cThe donor of this footage remains unidentified, as do the people behind the camera,\u201d says historian Mariana Lambert Passos Rocha, an archivist at the National Archives who analyzed the film as part of her master\u2019s thesis, defended at Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Getulio Vargas (FGV) in Rio de Janeiro in 2023. After examining the markings on the reels kept in the archive, Rocha concluded that the final edit of the film was most likely assembled in 1977\u2014a time when it was still uncertain whether Brazil\u2019s military would move toward a democratic opening. \u201cThat could explain why the footage remained hidden for so long,\u201d Rocha suggests.<\/p>\n

The story above was published with the title “xxx<\/strong>” in issue in issue 348 of february\/2025.<\/p>\n

Projects<\/strong>
\n1.<\/strong> Audiovisuals, history, and preservation: The place of Brazilian newsreels and television reports in the construction of memory (1946\u20131974) (n\u00ba 22\/06032-0<\/a>); Grant Mechanism<\/strong> Thematic Project; Principal Investigator<\/strong> Eduardo Victorio Morettin (USP); Investment<\/strong> R$1,767,131.92.
\n2.<\/strong> Audiovisuals and the 150th<\/sup> anniversary of Independence (1972): Circulation of images of the nation at the crossroads of authoritarian modernization (n\u00ba 21\/07062-8<\/a>); Grant Mechanism<\/strong> Postdoctoral Fellowship; Supervisor<\/strong> Eduardo Victorio Morettin (USP); Beneficiary<\/strong> Fernando Seliprandy Fernandes; Investment <\/strong>R$112,757.50.
\n3.<\/strong> Between erasure and resistance: Short films made by female Brazilian directors (1966\u20131985) (n\u00ba 18\/22648-6<\/a>); Grant Mechanism <\/strong>Undergraduate Research Grant; Supervisor<\/strong> Eduardo Victorio Morettin; Beneficiary<\/strong> Nayla Tavares Guerra; Investment <\/strong>R$15,211.46.<\/p>\n

Scientific articles<\/strong>
\nBLANK, T. C. & MACHADO, P. F. M. Em busca de um m\u00e9todo: Entre a est\u00e9tica e a hist\u00f3ria de imagens dom\u00e9sticas do per\u00edodo da ditadura militar brasileira<\/a>. Intercom: Revista Brasileira de Ci\u00eancias da Comunica\u00e7\u00e3o<\/strong>. Vol. 43, no. 2. 2020.
\nBLANK, T. C. & MACHADO, P. F. M. In\u00eas e Norma: Caminhos cruzados em imagens, arquivo e milit\u00e2ncia<\/a>. Acervo<\/strong>, Vol. 37, no. 1. 2024.
\nNAPOLITANO, M. O golpe de Estado (1964) no Brasil visto por um cinejornal sovi\u00e9tico<\/a>. Fotocinema<\/strong>. no. 20. 2020.
\nSELIPRANDY, F. Circuitos da propaganda oficiosa: Amaral Netto comemora os 150 anos da Independ\u00eancia (1972)<\/a>. Estudos Hist\u00f3ricos<\/strong>. Vol. 37, no. 82. 2024.<\/p>\n

Books<\/strong>
\nGUERRA, N. Entre apagamentos e resist\u00eancias: Curtas-metragens feitos por diretoras brasileiras (1966-1985)<\/strong>. S\u00e3o Paulo: Alameda, 2024.
\nMACHADO, P. Cinema de arquivo: Imagens e mem\u00f3ria da ditadura militar<\/strong>. Rio de Janeiro: Sagarana, 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Imagens were produced by professional and amateur film-makers while political repression and censorship blocked their circulation","protected":false},"author":729,"featured_media":558333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[216,241],"coauthors":[4362],"class_list":["post-558329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanities","tag-film","tag-history","position_at_home-sumario"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/729"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558329"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":558432,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558329\/revisions\/558432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558329"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=558329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}