Criticism | 8 Presidents 1 Oath – The history of a present time – Documentary analyzes National policy

Carla Camurati is an incredible and important Brazilian director. With a career full of films that have become a benchmark for many students who are now producing, such as ‘Carlota Joaquina, A Princesa do Brasil’ (1995) and ‘Getúlio’ (2014), the director is now making her broadcaster debut in all over the country his latest work – which is also the first documentary of his career: the political feature film “8 Presidentes 1 Oath – The History of a Present Time”.

After 35 years of re-democratization of the Brazilian state, “8 presidents 1 oath” follows the paths taken not only by the presidential candidates of the era of Brazilian democracy, but also signals the positions of the candidates who also presented but did not finish until winning – among which, a few names that reappear a little later in our History. When placed like this, side by side, it becomes more evident how the paths were followed by these individuals.

Joana Ventura’s editing is one of the safest aspects of production, achieving a smooth transition between governments to the point where the first one and thirty hours of the documentary pass in the blink of an eye. This is of course also due to the in-depth and dedicated image research carried out by Antônio Venâncio, who made good choices among the vast material he must have found in the collections of Globo and GloboNews, co-producers of the project. . Together, the two did a good job of capturing so much historical time and integrating it into a two hour and twenty minute feature film.

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However, the length of the documentary also ends up weighing on him, as the subject itself is dense. In a way, this choice also corresponds to the length of time that the documentary devotes to each of the presidential terms; Leaning forward with great agility until the 2000s, the film has a faster, suspense-like pace, weaving together tumultuous historical facts at the start, with Tancredo Neves’ quasi-administration up to the FHC government and the neoliberal era, the Plano Real and privatizations (including images of Carla Camurati herself in two important moments for the cinema where the director was present); the final hour of ‘8 Presidentes 1 Oath’, however, extends to explaining the rise and fall of the PT governments, with much emphasis on the consequences of Lava-Jato on the Lula and Dilma administrations; However, contrary to what it advertises in its synopsis, the documentary doesn’t stop with the inauguration of the current president – who in the film ends up being just brushed off, showing little of the tragedy that is the current administration, which has been designed from day one. The movie only shows possession and a sound taken from April 2020 – and sound, we know, doesn’t have the same impact as a picture in a movie.

‘8 Presidentes 1 Juramento’ is a documentary that, through its research, makes the viewer realize that political cycles are vicious, belonging to machinery of power that is difficult to break. As its title suggests, this is a historical analysis that reflects on the present time.

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