Educational Media Reviews Online

This is a brief and poignant look at the election Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2002. Filmed between the months of October 2002 and January 2003, the documentary captures the enthusiasm around the election of Lula, “the Shoeshine President,” and poses the question, “What’s next”?

Only 15 minutes long, this documentary - through the use of imaginative camera work, interviews, voice-overs and talking heads - manages to a) summarize Lula’s rise to power, b) show the conditions that fueled his election, and c) hint at the problems and the weight of expectation the new government will face.

The film’s opening shot depicts the massive public celebrations in Sao Paulo - a mélange of cars and flags and people, with music and signing and dancing in the streets - while a voice-over announces Lula’s victory.

The film ends three months later on inauguration day in Brasilia, with tens of thousands of people cheering their new president as he promises them a right to breakfast, lunch and dinner, but warns them that the past has been easy - “the difficult part will start now…if we want to change Brazil.”

Between coverage of these two events, the filmmakers quickly summarize Lula’s past, his poor beginnings, his history with the labor movement, his leadership of the Workers’ Party, his negotiating skills with the metal workers strike, and his ability to design a campaign to appeal to everyone. The filmmakers do not neglect the social conditions that generated his support. The cameras show both the high rises and the slums of Brazil, a country where over one third of the population lives in poverty.

Although the mood of the film is celebratory, it still manages to depict the difficulties inherent in a campaign that promises so much to so many. Talking head experts discuss the difficulties of debt and globalization, while testimonies from vendors, journalists, teachers and others explain Lula’s appeal. Because it focuses on the victory, the film minimizes the structural opposition Lula will face. Nevertheless, as if in anticipation of that opposition, one person says that victory will be ensured if Lula succeeds in getting only 10% of what he promised.

The audio and video quality of the film is appropriate for the topic - hand held cameras capture the excitement of the elections, and black and white stills fill in the history. Lula’s victory speech is a fitting conclusion for a film that is really about the future. Because The Shoeshine President depicts history in the making, it should be of interest to those who follow world events. Teachers in history and political science will find it particularly useful.