Terra Firme

A biography of Paulo César Farias, better known as PC Farias. PC was treasurer of former President Fernando Collor de Mello and was directly involved in the process that culminated in Collor's impeachment, deeply shaking the recently restored Brazilian democracy. The film features the participation of dozens of people who knew and lived with Farias, abundant documentation and exclusive archive material, which reveals the intricacies of Brazilian politics, focusing especially on the relationships between capital, ideology, power and organized crime.

The documentary offers an overview of the district of Cidade Tiradentes and its inhabitants. It starts by the acquisition of land by the public authorities from the 1970s onwards, to the occupation of what is today one of the largest housing projects in Latin America.

After the coup of 1964, the media conglomerate Diários Associados organized a campaign called "Gold for Brazil," exhorting the people to donate wealth to the military government. The symbol of the campaign was the wedding ring, sealing the union between the people and the State. The film picks up the trail of the millions collected, but never channeled back into society.

A prolific composer and one of the most celebrated poets in Brazilian music, Paulo César Pinheiro is the author of Canto das Três Raças and O Poder da Criação, among other samba, samba-enredo and song classics. Partner of Baden Powell, Tom Jobim and Edu Lobo, was created by Elis Regina, Clara Nunes and Maria Bethânia. Here, sitting on his couch, he reflects on human nature and leads a journey that evokes and involves big names in MPB, covering half a century of music, from the height of the festival era to the period of protest songs against the military dictatorship.

The documentary video follows the unique trajectory of the dancer Mercedes Baptista, considered the main precursor of Afro-Brazilian dance.

Neneide talks about female empowerment and how the group “Mulheres Decididas a Vencer” started working with bees in a settlement in Rio Grande do Norte. Izanete resists agribusiness that occupies extensive land in Rio Grande do Sul, where he produces ecological milk and bread for school meals. For Efigênia, gardening is therapy and working in the fields in Minas Gerais, independence. Maria dos Santos recalls struggles for land tenure and gender equality and against malnutrition in the quilombola areas of Bahia. Four seeds of solidarity economy, cooperativism, feminism, agroecology.

"Eu Tenho a Palavra" is a linguistic journey in search of the African origins of Brazilian culture.