A cautionary tale for these times of democracy in crisis—the personal and political fuse to explore one of the most dramatic periods in Brazilian history. With unprecedented access to Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Lula da Silva, we witness their rise and fall and the tragically polarized nation that remains.

When numerous schools in São Paulo were slated to be closed in 2015 as a result of the worsening socio-political crisis, students occupied more than a thousand public buildings in an unprecedented act of self-empowerment. Filmmaker Eliza Capai shows the development of the many-voiced protests, using news excerpts, self-conducted interviews and recordings made with activists’ own cell phone cameras. From the first demonstrations in 2013 and continuing all the way to the election of the extreme right-wing presidential Jair Bolsonaro in 2018, Capai’s highly political work becomes more and more relevant with each passing day.

When does a democracy end and a theocracy begin? In Apocalypse in the Tropics, Petra Costa investigates the increasingly powerful grip Christian evangelical leaders hold over politics in Brazil. She gains extraordinary access to the country’s top political leaders, including President Lula and former president Bolsonaro, as well as to Brazil’s most famous televangelist: a magnetic pastor who aspires to play puppet master to the far-right leader.

The impeachment and removal from office of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in 2016 was triggered by a corruption scandal involving, among others, her then vice-president Michel Temer. Director Maria Augusta Ramos follows the trial against Rousseff from the point of view of her defence team. This is a courtroom drama that unfolds slowly: the appearances of the various parties gradually turn the proceedings into something akin to theatre. Inside the courtroom, grand emotions are played to full effect whilst, on the other side of the doors, lobbyists and supporters pace the corridors. Meanwhile, outside, in front of Brasília’s modernist government buildings, demonstrators are chanting like a Greek chorus. Only the main character, Rousseff herself, remains professional and aloof.

A sobering look at the erosion of democracy & freedom of the press in the United States and abroad.