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Introduction: The Turn to Memory in Brazilian Culture and Politics
- University of Wisconsin Press
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3 Intro duc tion The Turn to Mem ory in Bra zil ian Cul ture and Pol i tics In late 2011, Brasília—the mod ern ist cap i tal of Bra zil, sym bol- iz ing the country’s as pi ra tions for a bright fu ture— turned its sights on the nation’s dark past of mil i tary dic tat or ship. On No vem ber 18, Pres i dent Dilma Rous seff signed a law creat ing the Na tional Truth Com mis sion (Comissão Na cional da Ver dade, CNV) in a his toric cer e mony at the Pla nalto Pal ace. The piece of leg is la tion, sanc tioned along side the new Free dom of In for ma tion Law, rep re sented the pos sibil ity of en ter ing a new era for mem ory and human rights in the coun try. The CNV came with a man date to in ves ti gate human rights crimes— namely tor ture, mur der, and po lit i cal dis ap pear ance—by state se cur ity forces dur ing the mil i tary re gime that gov erned the coun try between 1964 and 1985.1 After decades of being ig nored or only par tially ac knowl edged by the state, the human rights crimes would fi nally be the focus of an of fi cial in quiry and, through a re port to be com pleted in 2014, be come a more fully rec og nized part of Bra zil ian his tory. Two ear lier fed eral rep ar a tions com mis sions—one to ad dress the dead and dis ap peared and the other, vic tims whose live li hoods and rep u ta tions had suf fered as a re sult of po lit i cal per se cu tion—had only begun the im por tant work of delv ing into the vi o lence of the dic tat or ship and its leg a cies. The CNV rep re sented an even greater com mit ment by the Bra zil ian state to plumb the depths of its au thor i tar ian pe riod. 4 I n t r o d u c t i o n Less than two months ear lier, the Bra zil ian cap i tal had been the site of an other mo men tous event re lated to the mem ory of the dic tat or ship, this one a cul tural “hap pen ing.” On Sep tem ber 29, movie the a ters through out the city screened Hoje (Today), a new fea ture film by re nowned Bra zil ian film maker Tata Am aral, as part of the Brasília Film Fes ti val.2 Hoje tells the story of a woman named Vera who re ceives a check from the Bra zil ian govern ment in of fi cial rec og ni tion of the po lit i cal dis ap pear ance and pre sumed mur der of her hus band, Luiz, only to re en counter the “de ceased” on the day she moves into the new apart ment that she has bought with the rep ar a tions money. The film opened at a time when the fate of the CNV was hang ing in the bal ance: as mo vie goers flocked to see the film in this one-night-only event, the Bra zil ian sen ate was pre par ing to vote on the bill that Rous seff would even tu ally sign into law.3 The co in ci dence in tim ing brought in creased vis ibil ity to the film’s pre miere. The spot light in ten sified when the jury an nounced its picks at the festival’s close, with Hoje re ceiv ing a total of six awards, in clud ing those for best film and critics’ choice. The tim ing could hardly have been more per fect. The media did not hes i tate to pick up on the con nec tion between film and truth com mis sion, em pha siz ing it in ar ti cles about the Brasília pre miere and the film fes ti val awards.4 Nor did the as so ci a tion between the two events go un no ticed by the CNV, the film...
