film

The Edge of Democracy

2017

Completed

Bertha Journalism

Threshold

Better Futures

Director

Petra Costa

 

Production support

 

Film Details

Format: Short film

 

Doc Society Involvement

Docsoc helped with Production

 

An epic tragedy of corruption and betrayal, IMPEACHMENT is a behind-the-scenes look at the ousting of Brazil’s first female president, Dilma Rousseff. With privileged access to the president and other key politicians, the film unravels like a political thriller as Brazil falls into disarray, echoing the undoing of so many democracies throughout the world.

Subjects

Politics

Awards & Festivals

Awards

Best Political Documentary - Critics' Choice Documentary Awards () (2019)
Best Political Documentary - Critics' Choice Documentary Awards () (2019)
Best Narration - Critics' Choice Documentary Awards () (2019)
Best Documentary - Prêmio Guarani () (2020)
Best Documentary Feature - Academy Awards, USA () (2020)
Best Documentary - Gotham Awards () (2019)
Documentary - Peabody Awards () (2020)
DOX:AWARD - CPH:DOX () (2019)
Best Documentary (Melhor Documentário) - São Paulo Association of Art Critics Awards () (2020)
Cinema for Peace Award for the Political Film of the Year - Cinema for Peace Awards () (2020)
Best Documentary - The Platino Awards for Iberoamerican Cinema () (2020)
Best Documentary Feature - Latino Entertainment Journalists Association Film Awards () (2020)
Best Brazilian Feature Film (Melhor Longa Brasileiro) - Abraccine Prize (Brazilian Association of Film Critic Annual Prize) () (2019)
Brazilian Film of the Year - Brazil Online Film Award () (2020)
Best Non-Fiction Film - Brazil Online Film Award () (2020)

Festival Screenings

Sundance (2019) World Cinema - Documentary
Sheffield International Documentary Festival (2019) Tim Hetherington Award

Reviews

This works very well as both a primer on the tumultuous last several years of Brazilian politics and also as a very passionate personal essay film.

Costa manages to craft an intimate primer about the state's descent into populism and the fraying of the country's democratic fabric.

[Petra Costa] seems utterly incapable of crafting a frame that is lacking in urgency or vibrance.

An angry, intimate, and haunting portrait of Brazil's recent slide back into the open jaws of dictatorship.

Directed by Petra Costa, this completely fascinating documentary provides an unexpectedly compelling inside look at the political earthquakes that have been roiling Brazil for several years.

It's a chronicle of civic betrayal and the abuse of power, and also of heartbreak.

This is documentary cinema in which facts tangle compellingly with feeling, while passages of solemn, stately mood-building split the difference.

A powerful document of a wave of nationalism sweeping both Europe and the Americas in recent years.

A deeply felt rumination on a troubled political scene.

Gallery

The Edge of Democracy
The Edge of Democracy
The Edge of Democracy
The Edge of Democracy