WORLD WORLDWIDE SOUTH AMERICA - BRAZIL - news journal UPDATE - (en) Brazil, OSL, Libera #181 - FILMS ADDRESS POPULAR STRUGGLES IN LATIN AMERICA (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Showing films that help us reflect on the reality of popular struggles

is the goal of CineCELIP, a project by the Ideal Peres Libertarian Study
Circle (CELIP), which emerged in the last months of 2024. In São Paulo,
the film-debate sessions take place at Espaço Antônia e Angelina Soares,
in the Bixiga neighborhood. It was designed as a moment of fellowship
and collective education, and the meetings seek to connect the past with
the present, to build a debate on social struggles and their
contemporary developments. The proposal goes beyond showing films; it is
an invitation to critical analysis and inspiration for today's
struggles. Below we bring you recommendations for two films that have
already been shown.

A Little Bit of Truth (2007)
The documentary A Little Bit of Truth, directed by Jill Freidberg,
addresses the Oaxaca Uprising, a popular uprising that took place in the
Mexican state of Oaxaca in 2006. The production shows the struggle of
the population, mainly composed of teachers and members of indigenous
communities, against the then governor Ulises Ruiz, accused of
corruption and violent repression. The narrative is constructed from
images captured during the intense protests and occupations of public
buildings and radio and TV stations. The media, which initially served
as a government tool to repress the opposition, became a powerful
instrument in the hands of the protesters. This occupation of the radio
and TV airwaves is a central point of the documentary, revealing how
communication becomes a tool of resistance and mobilization.
Freidberg gives us an overview of the teachers' struggle, which begins
as a strike for better working conditions and gradually transforms into
a broader movement for social justice and against state repression. The
power of the images and testimonies reveals the suffering and courage of
the protesters, who face police and military violence.
The documentary highlights the importance of alternative media in
organizing and disseminating information. The protagonists transform the
occupied radio stations into channels of direct communication with the
population, breaking the information monopoly of the government and
conventional media. This control of the media by the protesters is one
of the most inspiring aspects, showing how technology can be used to
give voice to the silenced. A Little Bit of Truth is a work that brings
to light universal questions about direct action and the ability of
oppressed classes to organize and resist in the face of oppression; it
invites us to think about the role of the media in the construction of
social and political narratives and inspires us to consider the power of
collective mobilization in times of repression.

Also the Rain (2010)
Directed by Icíar Bollaín, Also the Rain is a film that explores the
complex relationship between history, politics, aesthetics and ethics.
The story follows a Spanish film crew, led by idealistic director
Sebastián (Gael García Bernal) and cynical producer Costa (Luis Tosar),
who travel to Bolivia to shoot a film about Christopher Columbus and the
exploitation of indigenous people during the colonial period. The script
draws a parallel between the colonial exploitation depicted in the film
and the contemporary situation in Bolivia, where locals are fighting a
"water war" against the privatization of this natural resource. Tensions
rise when Daniel (Juan Carlos Aduviri), an indigenous leader featured in
the film, becomes a leading activist against the company that controls
the water supply in the city of Cochabamba. The film questions the
interplay between ethics and aesthetics by suggesting that the way the
story is told has moral implications. Sebastián's insistence on
finishing the film, even in the face of violent repression against the
people in struggle, raises the question: to what extent does commitment
to art justify indifference to real suffering? Can art truly be an agent
of social change if artists ignore the contexts and real lives affected
by the process of creation?
The solution is not simple, and the film offers no easy answers.
Instead, También la lluvia forces us to reflect on the ethical
responsibility of those who tell stories, especially when those stories
involve pain and resistance. Sebastián's aesthetic commitment to
historical truth seems to crumble in the face of the contemporary truth
of Bolivians struggling for access to water. In the end, the very
integrity of the film project is called into question, as the narrative
of the film within the film begins to feel like a mirror of the reality
that surrounds it.
Ultimately, También la lluvia is a reflection on how art can
simultaneously illuminate and obscure issues of social justice. The film
challenges the idea that telling stories about the past is enough if we
are not willing to confront the injustices of the present. The
intersection between ethics and aesthetics, therefore, is not just a
theoretical debate in the film, but a matter of concrete action and
responsibility.

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