In 1968, Brazil’s military government passed a law that ushered in the most violent period of the dictatorship. The meeting was recorded, but remained secret for decades. The documentary combines these audio tracks with propaganda films of the time.

The documentary combines the audio tracks of a Brazil’s military government pivotal meeting during the dictatorship with propaganda films of the time.

-- Dir. João Pedro Bim - 66min - 2023 - Brazil --

"In December 1968, the cabinet of Brazil’s ruling military dictatorship gathered for a classified meeting which resulted in the issuance of Institutional Act No 5, a decree that stripped dissenting citizens of their civil rights and led to a blood-soaked period of forced disappearances, torture and extra-judicial killings. While the meeting was recorded, the tapes only emerged in recent years. João Pedro Bim’s documentary overlays contemporaneous propaganda newsreels with these damning recordings to create an intriguing juxtaposition that reveals the covert machinations of dictatorial rule." - Guardian

"A chilling glimpse into the fragility of democracy,...The banality of evil is on full display as the film remixes history, dissecting propaganda in order to indict a criminal dictatorship with its own rhetoric. In an era witnessing the resurgence of authoritarianism, it offers a cautionary tale beyond Brazil’s local politics in 1968." - True/False

"a Godardian essay on the banality of evil and a catastrophic shutdown of democracy." - Brooklyn Rail

"The brevity and matter-of-factness with which the Brazilian leaders dismantle democracy is both shocking and ominously reminiscent of the state of things more than half a century later....Bim avoids glibness by explicitly identifying each speaker as well as the provenance of the images we’re consuming, effectively putting the viewer in the position of archivist, historian, and outraged citizen of the world." - Museum of the Moving Image, First Look Film Festival