When democracy cracks open on live TV and nobody changes the channel.
Just one week after the inauguration of the new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, supporters of his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, invaded and vandalized the headquarters of the three branches of government in Brasília: the National Congress, the Planalto Palace and the Supreme Federal Court. Unhappy with their defeat at the polls and guided by fake news and conspiracy theories, many of the pro-Bolsonaro invaders believed that the Armed Forces would overthrow the newly inaugurated government. The images of destruction made headlines around the world. In this special documentary, reporter Camilla Veras Mota and video journalist Giovanni Bello went to Brasília to speak with witnesses of what happened that day and, with the help of experts, piece together the pieces that made the January 8 attacks possible.
Direction
Veras Mota and Bello's ground-level access feels dangerously immediate.
Editing
Juxtaposing user-generated chaos with official silence is devastating.
Director
Caio Quero
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
January 8 is now Brazil's own fractured January 6 reference point, though the global media cycle barely noticed. The documentary's existence itself is part of the memory war.
Director Caio Quero previously covered Bolsonaro's presidency for Al Jazeera; this represents a pivot from foreign correspondence to domestic reckoning that Brazilian mainstream outlets were too timid to attempt.
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