In order to celebrate our return to democracy after more than 20 years living under the military regime, director Marcelo Masagão made this humored yet real video project
where he gathered the last Brazilian presidents, going from the regime period up until the then current president Collor, a little before his political crisis involving corruption
acts led him to the impeachment in 1992. With this gathering, Masagão makes a collage of speeches between those seven presidents showing that despite differences in style,
personality and with the advance of the years and decades, the politics was still actually the same, the system never changed. For those who had seen "Die Hard 4.0" when the
main villain broadcast his threat to America by using edited clips of the American president as if they were all performing his menace, this short is basically that but way
before the movie and there's some harsh criticism about the political system and some dark use of humor.
A few highlights of the movie: Castello Branco talking about bringing the dream into reality and then other leaders say something close to the effect but as we see
nothing got done, actually - if we have to evaluate how the social and economical challenges of the 1960's are still evident and pertinent today; Collor convincing people to
put money on their saving account and then we hear loud cries of "No!" in the background, which relates to what he and the minister of economy actually did with people's savings
early on in his administration; the fast cuts whenever the Brazilian hymn is played usually cutting speeches in half or introducing another speech. It's all visually vibrant,
he cuts the pedantic parts of those long speeches mixes one president with another and proves his point. The criticism we have about those men isn't all the same but I guess most
of us can agree that none of them were considered great leaders, didn't do anything so good or so effective and thirty-something years after the last one presented, here we are
with a damaged political system that only got worse (but in a way I can say it got a lot better some years ago, specially with the three re-elected presidents, even though the last
was impeached).
Masagão is a master in storytelling that uses of archive images or different points of view without depending on recreating things or interviewing people, and this early
example is a clear and simple way to get to know the man, his aesthetics and how he does everything, and this was way before the amazing "Nós Que Aqui Estamos Por Vós Esperamos"
(a gathering of real images of the 20th Century where he creates fascinating stories about them). It's a must-see work, both projects. In this case, you can get some laughter on
the surface, but when you analyse the historical background of all those presidents you'll start to choke inside thinking about how dumb they sound and how innefective they were
when in office, and above all, the tragedy they cause on people. We were never the same after those dreamy and imponent speeches, nothing but lies. "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." 10/10.