'The Edge of Democracy' Tracks Brazil's Slide to Fascism

Though The Edge of Democracy is Brazilian filmmaker Petra Costa's final piece in a personal trilogy, it's the first to nab her an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature. A year after the doc was acquired by Netflix at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, the cinematic exploration appears to have struck a timely chord far beyond the borders of the divided nation in which it is set.

Costa's epic film is a sweeping mélange made up of the director's expert cinéma vérité camerawork and vast trove of home movies, plus archival footage and media coverage spanning decades of her country's history — from the military dictatorship that Costa's wealthy maternal grandfather wholeheartedly supported; to the workers' rebellion that brought the iconic future president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to prominence (and forced Costa's own left-wing parents underground for a decade); to the more recent corruption scandals that fatefully led to the impeachment of Brazil's first female president, Lula protégé Dilma Rouseff; the jailing of Lula himself, and the rise of strongman Jair Bolsonaro to the highest office. With remarkably intimate access to all the players, and guided by the director’s own philosophical voiceover, we’re given a front-row seat to what Rouseff (a former militant and victim of dictatorship torture) calls in a powerful farewell speech her greatest fear: the death of democracy.

Documentary took the opportunity to chat with Costa soon after the Academy Award nominations were announced.

To read my interview visit Documentary magazine.