عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Entertainment

‘I’m Still Here’ Spotlights Brazil’s Authoritarian Past

Fernanda Torres poses with the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama for "I'm Still Here" at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, US, January 5, 2025. (Reuters)
Fernanda Torres poses with the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama for "I'm Still Here" at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, US, January 5, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
TT

‘I’m Still Here’ Spotlights Brazil’s Authoritarian Past

Fernanda Torres poses with the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama for "I'm Still Here" at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, US, January 5, 2025. (Reuters)
Fernanda Torres poses with the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama for "I'm Still Here" at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, US, January 5, 2025. (Reuters)

A white house in a quiet corner of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has been attracting a stream of visitors in recent weeks.

They are eager to see the family home portrayed in the Academy Awards nominee film "I’m Still Here", in which a mother of five rebuilds her life while struggling to uncover the truth about her husband's forced disappearance during Brazil’s military regime in the 1970s.

"We came here to pay homage to the family," said visitor Daniela Gurgel, as she roamed through the house. "Raising this story at this time is very important."

The film's three Oscar nominations - best picture, best international feature, and best lead actress - cast a global spotlight on both the real story of Eunice Paiva and her husband Rubens Paiva, and the authoritarian government that upended their lives. The military ruled Brazil between 1964 and 1985.

"Seeing the world watch this story is the recognition of a struggle that my family has been fighting for over 50 years," said Marcelo Rubens Paiva, the son of Eunice and Rubens and the author of the book on which the movie is based.

This struggle, he added, is one "for respect for human rights and democracy."

Brazil's dictatorship ended four decades ago but no one has ever been held accountable for the murder of hundreds of its critics or the torture of what many believe were tens of thousands. Even Rubens Paiva's disappearance, one of the most emblematic cases of human rights abuse of that time, is still an open case before Brazil's Supreme Court. His body was never found.

In 2010, the court upheld a 1979 law, passed during the dictatorship, that pardoned the crimes committed by the regime. But prosecutors and others who oppose the ruling still have cases pending before the court, including Paiva's.

On Friday, the Brazilian government provided families some relief.

Rubens Paiva's death certificate was amended to register that the cause of his death was "unnatural, violent, caused by the Brazilian State in the context of systematic persecution of the population identified as political dissidents of the dictatorial regime established in 1964".

Actress Fernanda Torres, who plays Eunice Paiva in the movie, said: "They did everything they could so that there would be no body, so that there would be no memory, so that it would not be spoken of, so that it would remain hidden in a corner."

But, she added: "This story will not be forgotten."

More than 400 other death certificates from victims of the military dictatorship all over Brazil will be rectified in an effort led by the Special Commission on Political Deaths and Disappearances under former human rights minister Nilmario Miranda.

"The film came as a gift from heaven for us, because it deals with a political disappearance," Miranda said. "The families feel that Brazil needs it. This debt to democracy is being redeemed now."

Most Viewed

 
 
Entertainment

Beyonce and the Grammys: A Tense Relationship again at a Head

Beyonce, shown here performing with her daughter Blue Ivy during an NFL game on Christmas Day 2024, is the artist with the most Grammys ever. Alex Slitz / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
Beyonce, shown here performing with her daughter Blue Ivy during an NFL game on Christmas Day 2024, is the artist with the most Grammys ever. Alex Slitz / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
TT
TT

Beyonce and the Grammys: A Tense Relationship again at a Head

Beyonce, shown here performing with her daughter Blue Ivy during an NFL game on Christmas Day 2024, is the artist with the most Grammys ever. Alex Slitz / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
Beyonce, shown here performing with her daughter Blue Ivy during an NFL game on Christmas Day 2024, is the artist with the most Grammys ever. Alex Slitz / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File

Beyonce is the most decorated artist in Grammys history, and her album releases have both triggered cultural earthquakes and reshaped music industry norms.

But few artists have ever been snubbed so conspicuously by the Recording Academy -- for all her trailblazing accomplishments, Beyonce has never won the prestigious prizes for best album or record, said AFP.

Once again on Sunday, she will head to the Grammys gala with the most chances to win, after "Cowboy Carter" -- her genre-spanning, sociopolitically charged conversation piece of an album -- dropped last spring to critical acclaim.

It earned her a fifth nomination for Album of the Year: in years past, she has lost to Taylor Swift, Beck, Adele and, most recently, Harry Styles.

As for Record of the Year, this is her ninth shot at a golden gramophone.

And in a glaringly consistent pattern, nearly all of Beyonce's losses have been to white pop and rock artists.

"If she wins the Album of the Year category for 'Cowboy Carter,' it would be -- for me, personally -- similar to when Barack Obama won the presidency," said Birgitta Johnson, a professor of African American studies and music history at the University of South Carolina.

To explain the parallel, Johnson said that upon Obama's victory, "as a Black person in America... I was totally shocked."

'Fault lines'

For Johnson, Grammy voters tend to dismiss collaborative projects, which is Beyonce's bread and butter: the megastar showcases Black music and traditions while elevating fellow artists.

Musicologist Lauron Kehrer seconded that point, citing Beyonce's 2015 loss to Beck for Album of the Year; the chatter afterwards was that while Beyonce worked with a team, Beck put the album together himself.

Voter "values have been more aligned with white-dominated genres like rock and alternative," said Kehrer.

"When we look at pop and R&B and other genres, they take a more collaborative approach -- but that approach to collaboration hasn't really been valued by Grammy voters."

Kehrer said Beyonce's career is emblematic of "fault lines in how organizations think about style and think about genre, especially around race and gender lines."

And though the Grammys have increased the number of contenders in the top categories -- it used to be five, was bumped to 10, and is currently eight -- in a bid to promote diversity, the change has actually meant votes are split to a degree that people of color and less conventional artists still rarely win.

"All those things are coming into play when it comes to Beyonce, this iconic global star that keeps missing this particular brass ring," Johnson said.

No 'one-trick pony'

Beyonce's work is difficult to define -- beyond the top categories, her 11 Grammy nominations this year span Americana, country, pop and rap.

She has previously scooped awards for dance and electronic music.

"She refuses to be a one-trick pony," Kehrer said.

"It does feel like 'Cowboy Carter' especially was a project to show, among other things, that she's a versatile artist who can't be pigeon-holed, and to kind of force institutions in the industry to pay attention to that."

Beyonce has thus challenged the Recording Academy to keep up with her by improving on its categorization of music to better reflect industry trends -- something that the Grammy organizers have indeed endeavored to do.

In the end, the Grammys need Beyonce a whole lot more than she needs the Grammys, Johnson says.

Her touch is vital to the gala "so they can seem not only relevant, but as inclusive as they claim they have been trying to be," she told AFP.

'Litmus test'

As for winning prizes, if that were Beyonce's primary concern, she would write music tailored for that, Johnson notes.

Instead, "she's trying to do more work around narratives and identity," the professor said.

"She's one of those rare artists who are free creatively, but also has the wealth to propel her vision."

That vision trickles down to the artists who routinely win the big prizes, Johnson said, pointing to Grammys darling Billie Eilish as an example of how younger generations take inspiration from Beyonce to work across genres.

Ultimately, even if Queen Bey doesn't need institutional approval, wins matter for fans -- and, in turn, representation.

"It's hard to get around the fact that it's such a significant recognition," Kehrer said, calling the Grammys a "litmus test for where we are on race and genre in the music industry."