Episode 1
Trabalhadores na Ditadura
This episode seeks to describe the impacts of the dictatorship on rural and urban workers. It addresses topics ranging from economic policy and wage squeeze and their effects on the living conditions of the working class to frequent cases of political surveillance, interventions and open repression against unions, workers' movements, and peasant and worker leaders. The narrator is Jardel Leal, a former naval worker and economist at DIEESE, who was arrested during the dictatorship.
Episode 2
Educação na Ditadura
This episode deals with the stories of students, professors and members of the technical-scientific staff of universities and schools affected by the dictatorship. Breaking away from the commonplace on the subject, the film shows that the victims of the dictatorship are not limited to the official number of deaths and disappearances during the period. There are a large number of students, for example, who experienced the violence of repression during the period, mass arrests and forced disappearances. The episode also tells the stories of teachers and public servants who had their careers interrupted, left the country or even lost their lives during the dictatorship. The narrator is historian Dulce Pandolfi, a former political prisoner, who gave her account to the National Truth Commission and the State Commission of Rio de Janeiro.
Episode 3
Mulheres na Ditadura
This episode deals with violence against women during the military dictatorship. The memory of the period tends to prioritize white, heterosexual men, mostly associated with the armed struggle, whether in films or literary and cultural productions. However, the participation of women in their multiple forms of resistance was far from secondary. The feminist presence in the fight against the dictatorship was associated with the movement for amnesty. Mothers and family members led the denunciation of violations in the public sphere. At the same time, the regime used sexual violence as a form of torture, showing the inseparability of gender and the State, morality and politics. The episode is narrated by Lucia Murat, a filmmaker and former political prisoner during the dictatorship.
Episode 4
População LGBTQIA+ na Ditadura
This episode addresses the issue of violence by the regime against the homosexual and transsexual population, which we now know by the acronym LGBTQIA+. Dissident bodies and sexualities were targeted by the dictatorial repressive apparatus, which sought to build a society along the lines of "morals and good customs". Concerns about the "apology for homosexuality," often associated with international communism, served to blur the boundaries between morality and politics, justifying several censorships and dismissals. Violence against gays, lesbians, and trans people was also constant, carried out through police raids, arrests, and torture. The film questions the ideas of sexual freedom and desire as something dissociated from power relations through documents and testimonies from the period. The episode is narrated by Hércules Quintanilha, a social scientist graduated from UFF, who was detained by security forces in Rio de Janeiro during the dictatorship.
Episode 5
População Negra e Moradores de Favelas na Ditadura
This episode addresses the issue of the regime's violence against the black population and favela residents. Tens of thousands of families were removed from their homes to make way for real estate speculation and the enrichment of the ruling classes, favored by the regime; young black men executed by death squads and extermination groups; favela residents arbitrarily arrested and tortured under the allegation of "vagrancy"; censorship and persecution of black cultural expressions: these were some of the main forms of violence that the regime used against these sectors of society, while reinforcing the myth of racial democracy and claiming that racism did not exist in Brazil. The episode is narrated by Asfilófio Filho, known as Dom Filó, an organizer of soul music parties that celebrated black beauty and questioned racism. Filó was arrested and taken to DOI-Codi after organizing a dance in Guadalupe, North Zone of Rio de Janeiro.
Episode 6
Povos Indígenas na Ditadura
In this episode, we see how, during the dictatorship, indigenous peoples were targeted by removals, massacres and epidemics in the name of development and national security. Businessmen, bankers, landowners and government agents allied themselves to "pacify" the unruly indigenous people and accelerate their "integration" into national society. By removing them from their lands, they built roads and hydroelectric plants, and set up economic activities such as agriculture and mining, generating pollution and destruction. On the other hand, the film also portrays the struggle of backwoodsmen, anthropologists and missionaries, the emergence of the unified indigenous movement and the challenges of the democratic period. The narrator is Douglas Krenak, whose family was exiled from their sacred territory during the dictatorship.
