Liberdade de Imprensa

João Batista de Andrade's documentary is really something. This forgotten gem needs to be rediscovered in light of constant debates surrounding the freedom of press in Brazil, which in my view, we have too many but it's wrongly exercised, used and divulged. "Liberdade de Imprensa" ("Freedom of Press") was produced by a group of students from USP (University São Paulo) three years after the military regime take over and exactly the year before the constitutional act that censored all forms of news, media, arts and everything that was against their rules, their views and their so-called good costumes and moral.

In 1967, there was a relative freedom in what could be presented as news, the regime wasn't so strict but this little breach allowed criticism on the government, debate among the public on the relations between the American imperialism in Brazilian companies, enough noise to block the media's ultimate role to inform people of what really goes on. In 1967, one military president died (in mysterious circumstances, and most likely killed by his own people who thought he was too soft against the communists and their opposers) and the other took over, toughening everything.

The movie presents the opinion of journalists, politicians like Carlos Lacerda (at one time, a vocal supporter of the media, always taking advantage of it to bring down his political enemies; but in the film he's a strong opposer to the Press Law), and the public opinion from regular Joes who share their thoughts on what they think freedom of press is, its role in society and the benefits or problems with that. The voices from the latter are the most interesting at times, when the person interviewed reveals to have a real knowledge on the issue - I was speechless at the level of information some of those folks had, specially considering that this was a time way before internet and they were already talking about the controversial scheme involving the most powerful TV network from here and its illicit business with a giant American corporation. Other members from the crowd really left me cringing with their ridiculous and naive answers - the poor fella from the countryside, I bet he didn't even know what Communism was to claim "I don't think everything is gonna get solved with the U.S. but I'm all up for U.S. helping us to get rid off them". That was exactly what happened but their involvement was beyond supporting a regime, it was also with economical transactions, most of the time going in different directions of what people needed.

Fascinating, contradictory, slightly explosive but quite incendiary, "Liberdade de Imprensa" makes us wonder how things got so bad in terms of the role of the press at the time, then 20 years later it escaped from the censorship power and became a larger than life monster that wrongfully takes its title as Fourth Power with a frightening fierce, that seems to be viewed as super ethical, filled with righteousness at the eyes of the common people. How did it got so wrong? If made now, I can tell you that the opinionated voices from the street would be filled with idiotic remarks, without any kind of politically and socially constructive talk. Andrade's film is sure verbose, hard to follow at times, but there's enough room for debate, for comparison and above all (best of all): the director leaves the reflection, the side-choosing part, to the viewer. He never takes sides, he's not criticizing the military neither adoring the media types. It makes all the right questions, then presents glimpses of answers. The rest is up to you. Once you know what went on in Brazil's history you can make a full picture of the pieces presented here. It forms a strange whole.

There's a great man who appears close to the end who makes the perfect prophecy when asked about what would happen if the press wasn't free. "We would have nothing. We wouldn't be a democracy". The strange thing in his comment was that the nation wasn't a democracy in that particular year, it was a dictatorship in charge. Keeping a free press in such state? Of course not. But at least he was hopeful and dreaming of a different place...we still haven't got there. 9/10