Educational Media Reviews Online

Journalists and scholars narrate a probing look at the political context of Brazil’s news industry and the role of that news establishment in the rise to power of President Bolsonaro. With what one observer describes as a structurally fraudulent media, the film comments on that nation’s intersecting historical legacy of African slave trade with a political and economic system known for income inequality, privatization of the public sphere, and plummeting press freedoms. Inside a country the non-profit advocacy organization Reporters sans frontières identifies as topping lists of those with the highest concentration of media ownership, six corporate groups control close to ninety percent of the Brazilian news media audience.

Echoing attacks on journalists stoked by right wing political movements in the United States or Europe, the media in Brazil is described as a form of war journalism. Information is frequently weaponized and aimed toward assassination of reputations and criminalizing political opposition, by a privileged government elite portrayed as defenders of ordinary people. The path into a more unabashed and truthful journalism becomes difficult, the type of reporting that holds the powerful to account, or as one blogger here calls it, a journalism without make-up. Attempts to address social justice are met with hyperbolic counter accusations of socialism or communism, as well as fear-baiting about the negative influence of immigrants.

Our Flag Will Never Be Red is a valuable resource for those studying press freedoms, media ownership, or right wing or other populist political movements around the globe. If a weakness looms, slightly more historical overview of Brazilian political and economic history might have been beneficial. Further coverage could also have been added about those bloggers and other journalists who narrate the film, through even closer depiction of examples of the reporting they do. They labor inside of an extremely challenging environment where the film dubs most major Brazilian media players as henchmen of an elite. Otherwise, this is a recommended commentary on the fragility and tenacity of democracy and news reporting in Brazil, as that overlaps with global corporate commerce and a deeply rooted culture of slavery. Especially in its candid reflections by those who do the work of journalism in Brazil, sometimes at their own peril, this documentary is a timely perspective on that mission, as authoritarian forces seek to redefine the profession of journalism itself.

Awards:

- Festival do Río 2019 – Official Selection Première Brasil-Frontiers (Brazil); Seattle Latino Film Festival 2019 – Official Selection (USA); DocLisboa International Film Festival 2019 - Official Selection (Portugal); Human Rights Film Festival Barcelona 2019 – Official Selection (Spain); Five Continents Int. Film Festival 2019 – Award Winner Best Documentary (Venezuela); Social World Film Festival 2020 - Official Selection (Italy); Santiago Alvarez Documentary Film Festival 2020 - Award Winner 3rd Place Best Documentary (Cuba); Festival Internacional de Cine por los Derechos Humanos 2020 - Official Selection (Colombia); Festival Internacional de Cine de los Derechos Humanos de Sucre 2020 - Official Selection (Bolivia); Cine Fest Pedra Azul 2020 - Award Winner Best Documentary (Brazil); RapidLion South African Film Festival 2020 - Official Selection (South Africa); Festival Internacional Cine de América 2020 - Official Selection Competition (México); United Nations Film Festival 2020 - Official Selection Competition (USA); Festival de Cinema de Caruaru 2020 - Official Selection Competition (Brazil); Cindie Film Festival 2020 - Official Selection Competition (Brazil); Madrid Indie Film Festival 2020 - Official Selection in Competition (Spain)