The Edge of Democracy

Stopped after watching half. Not sure what it was, but the storytelling never grabbed me and I found it both too slow (constant interruptions of the core story with uninteresting personal recollections) and too fast (not enough time setting up the historical context and showing the sequence of events clearly).

One of the best documentaries I've ever watched. Offers an in depth dicussion of the rise and fall of the socialdemocratic party in Brazil with an artisanal and thrilling 1.p-pov narrative.

You know what I'd like to see? Brazil's TV Globo making a two hour documentary about political corruption in the USA. Let's start with Nixon, then Bush/Gore, Clinton/Lewinski, Trump/Clinton, Trump/Biden, Trump... anybody. Then add in an impotent and acquiescent Congress and then finally ask the self-appointed arbiters of world cinema - AMPAS - to give it an Oscar! What chance, eh? Well instead of dreaming, we have this sadly quite depressing analysis into the deeply polarised political situation in a Brazil latterly torn between supporters of Dilma Rousseff and Lula da Silva - both elected Presidents of a population of some 220-odd million souls. Using an impressive array of archive footage and some unusually candid access to both of these controversial individuals, themselves, this attempts quite successfully to illustrate just how divided a country Brazil is and just how toxic and corrupt it's political system is. Judges who lead investigations into alleged criminals then end up presiding over their trials. Allegations are bandied about, ten-a-penny, and then adjudged by a senate whose attitudes to impeachment are rarely troubled by evidence but operate more along much more vitriolic party lines. The court system is so closely integrated into the political one that it's difficult for even the most open-minded observer to remain convinced for long that it can hope to be remotely independent - even if it wants to be. Video evidence from heated parliamentary debates, votes and from commission hearings all show us just how ill-tempered the process of government was/is, but this isn't going on in isolation. On the streets of giant conurbations like Sao Paolo the population are unafraid to take to the streets in support of or to decry their officials. Political success here is a fickle thing and there's barely a voice for democracy and cohesion to be heard so it's not hard to see why both Rousseff and da Silva manage to carry the support they have. Charisma is key, here...