Memória, história e documentário brasileiro: uma análise do filme Peões (2004), de Eduardo Coutinho

Abstract

This text is dedicated to the analysis of the documentary Peões (2004), by Eduardo Coutinho, a work that revisits the strikes in the ABC Paulista that occurred between 1979 and 1984. Produced in 2002, the film seeks to connect with the former workers who participated in this historic movement. Coutinho uses interviews and testimonies to explore the memories and reflections of the workers, also inserting scenes from other documentaries of the strike period, such as Greve! (1979) by João Batista de Andrade, Linha de Montagem (1982) by Renato Tapajós and ABC da Greve (1979-1990) by Leon Hirszman. This study problematizes how the director appropriated the strikes of ABC Paulista, discursively reconstructing the memories of trade unionism and its participants. The documentary follows a similar structure to Coutinho's previous works, such as Santo Forte (1999), Babilônia 2000 (2000) and Edifício Master (2002), focusing on the interview and testimony to elaborate the narratives. The novelty in Peões is the use of selected scenes from other documentaries of the strike cycle – from the 1970s and 80s – which raises questions about the construction of new meanings for these works in the context of Coutinho's film. The work contextualizes the use of these resources in Coutinho's work and promotes a dialogue with elements present in the documentaries produced during the strikes. It seeks to understand from the dialogue with the perspectives of visuality and visual culture, present in the cinematographic narrative, observing how the construction of the "pawn" for the films is carried out, in the strike cycle, as well as in the intimacy that is reconstituted in the 2000s in Peões. In the end, this study proposes an analysis of the construction of the “peão” from a subjective and nostalgic perspective, two decades after the strikes, in relation to the presidential elections that took place in that period.