A piece on a harrowing era in Brazil’s history, Behind Closed Doors (João Pedro Bim, 2023) is one of a particular importance in a contentious time in the country’s politics. Director Bim presents a film of both fine form and function, one which not only educates but also clearly an expression of caution, seeing how the truths surrounding the present and the past can so often be trampled on.
In 1964, a military dictatorship was put in place in Brazil by a coup d’etat backed by the United States. Through a previously classified audio recording, the film allows us to sonically sit in on a December 13, 1968 National Security Council meeting. It is at this meeting that the dictatorship decided to enact Institutional Act No. 5, starting the most violent period of a vicious regime which would systematically violate human rights up until 1985.
To the sound of different dignitaries of the dictatorship making decisions which would bring about more than a decade of death and despair to many Brazillians, Director Bim presents us with a visual collection of various scenes from cunning State-produced propaganda films of the time. This sophisticated collage so eloquently presents jarring juxtapositions and manages to amplify the vile ambivalence that those in power often have towards the people they serve.
The film’s multilayered storytelling manages to add shock value. As we see clips aiming to promote how the government’s programs–claimed to be rooted in Brazil’s youth, diversity, and religious ideals–can forward the country for the many, we hear as a few uniformed old men unilaterally take a unholy, morally abhorrent decision that would take Brazil backwards. Behind Closed Doors (2023) is a collage in the truest sense of its artistic process, with the editing further emphasizing the shocking turn of events. Quick cuts and sudden freeze-frames visually play a part in presenting the dangerous disconnect between the dictatorship and the Brazilian people; whilst the crackling, crude quality of the audio recording from the meeting itself adds to the unsettling eeriness of the dangerous determinations that were being made.
By using propaganda, past distortions of the truth, and recycling them–and not simply regurgitating them–Director Bim manages to add a more multidimensional depth to these recordings which set the record straight in the present. Especially in a time where apologists of the dictatorship, such as former president Jair Bolsonaro, have been thrusted to power in Brazilian politics, pieces such as this work are of paramount importance. (Aradi Ghalizha) (Ed/Trans. Vanis)
Film Details
Behind Closed Doors (A Portas Fechadas)
João Pedro Bim | 66 Min | 2023 | Brazil
In Competition for International Feature-Length
Festival Film Dokumenter 2024
Screening Schedule
Nov. 3 | 15.30 WIB | Militaire Societeit, TBY
