BRAZIL DIVIDED ON SCREENS: creation and editing processes in the construction of political characters after 2016
Character. Documentary. The Edge of Democracy. The Trial. Honorables.
This research identifies and analyzes creation and editing processes used in the construction of characters in three documentaries that represent the political division in Brazil: The Edge of Democracy (Democracia em Vertigem, 2019), The Trial (O processo, 2018) and Honorables (Excelentíssimos, 2018). As a result, sequences starring four characters were selected to compose the analyses: Dilma Rousseff, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Michel Temer and Jair Bolsonaro. So three former presidents and one president. Among the criteria adopted for the selection of those sequences, attention was paid to those in which observational and interactive methods (DA-RIN, 2006), as well as archives, were used in the construction of those characters. Based on the analyses, it is possible to affirm that, in view of the political moment that the country experienced between 2016 and 2019, pillars of the documentary tradition (DA-RIN, 2006), especially social intervention and interpretation, are present in representations of the three films. Because of this, in part of the sequences of two of them: The Edge of Democracy and Honorables, the directors make use of montage devices that prevent the mise-en-scène of those characters from appearing in the foreground.