Tuesday 13 May 2014

The Day The Lasted 21 Years

Film Festival time. We started with Milk & Honey a short that talks about the Dawn Raids in the mid 1970s. What happens to the people in this short is a lot nicer than what happened to most, but it's a nice window.

In conjunction with Reel Brazil, we watched The Day That Lasted 21 Years, about the military coup of 1964. When Joao Goulart took over the Presidency, the US Ambassador decided that his ideas were anti-US... and so actively got together with the military forces and backed said coup in 1964. A coup which left the military in power for 21 years... in which they did a number of horrendous acts of torture, which the US didn't say anything about, certainly didn't condemn it (because US and torture, amirite?), and still aided with money. Yeah, the CIA are the good guys here because they brought the country. Good for them.

Not exactly glowing, but it does show what happened, and that's what a good documentary does. We get many talking heads, including people who were involved in the events, with the benefit of many years since.

A good movie for those of us who have no idea.

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