“Estou aqui fazendo um filme”

Abstract

The documentary Osvaldao (2014) portrays the trajectory of Osvaldo Orlando da Costa, one of the most important characters of the Guerrilha do Araguaia (1972-1974). Its production is linked to the Mauricio Grabois Foundation, linked to the Communist Party of Brazil (PC do B), to which the militants who worked in Araguaia belonged. Black and communist, Osvaldao lost his life in the eastern Brazilian Amazon, where he carried out militant work for about eight years. In the article, we seek to problematize the representations that the film builds in relation to the guerrilla life story and how race relations were portrayed. We tried to understand the choices made by the filmmakers regarding the frameworks given to the trajectory of the biographer, based on disputes over memory in force in Brazil in those years starting in the decade of 2010. Notably, the clashes over the memory of the dictatorship and the sub- representation of blacks in narratives that deal with national history.