Perseu Abramo Foundation launches short film based on Wladimir Pomar’s autobiography on the 60th anniversary of the coup

By Conceição Lemes

In the coming days, more than 100 activities will take place across the country to mark 60 years since the 1964 coup, which began the military dictatorship.

The Perseu Abramo Foundation, in São Paulo, hosts one of them.

This Sunday, March 31st, the documentary premieres The name of lifea short film based on the autobiography of communist militant Wladimir Pomar, survivor of the military operation that became known as the Lapa Massacre, in 1976.

It is directed by Amanda Pomar, granddaughter of Wladimir Pomar.

Graduated in Arts and Cinema from the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), she works as an illustrator.

Today, there are two sessions.

The first was at 4pm. The second is at 7pm.

Tomorrow, April 1st, there will be another session at 7pm.

The Perseu Abramo Foundation is located at Rua Francisco Cruz 234, close to the Vila Mariana metro station in São Paulo.

LAPA MASSACRE

The Geisel Government had a moderate speech, promising a democratic transition.

In practice, however, it continued to persecute opponents of the military regime.

One of the tests was the so-called Lapa Massacre, in the city of São Paulo, in December 1976.

Part of the PCdoB Central Committee met clandestinely in a “apparatus” in the Lapa neighborhood, in the city of São Paulo, to analyze the defeat of the Araguaia Guerrilla and debate new resistance strategies.

The device was nothing more than a common house that communist militants used to meet and talk.

Communist parties had been banned from political party life in Brazil.

In the early hours of December 16, as the meeting was ending, agents from DOI-CODI (subordinated to the Army) and DOPS attacked the “device”.

The meticulously planned military operation ended with three deaths: Pedro Pomar, Ângelo Arroyo and João Batista Franco Drummond, all leaders of the PcdoB.

The other participants were persecuted, arrested and tortured, including Wladimir Pomar, Pedro Pomar’s son.

Considered one of the last major crimes of the military government, the massacre was forgotten by society and minimized even by sectors of the left.

“As we complete 60 years of the military coup in Brazil, it is necessary to recover the memory of those who fell in defense of the principles of freedom, democracy and social justice, in its correct presentation before the Brazilian people, to tell it, make her survive”, says director Amanda Pomar.

”Four years of work to arrive at this object, the short film”, she says. ”Like a medicine to wake up, this work was to prey on a tortured history of the country and mine.”

When talking about the film, Amanda recalls an episode from April 11, 1980, when the remains of Pedro Pomar, her great-grandfather, were transferred from São Paulo to Pará. She wasn’t even born.

On the occasion, Wladimir gave a speech addressed to his father’s memory:

“Finally, there are those who say that Pomar left a legacy. And truth. He left us the example of his life, a legacy of modesty, rectitude of character, dedication to the working class, the people and his party, an ingrained love for the truth, an aversion to vanity and constant alertness and combat against one’s own interests. errors.

There are those who want to own this legacy. This pretension is an affront to my father, who always fought against exclusivism and the spirit of sects.

Pomar’s heritage, a heritage worthy of the best revolutionaries, is not the heritage of the family or any group.

She belongs to her entire party, she belongs to all revolutionaries, the working class and the exploited and oppressed people. I hand it over to you.”

”Wladimir’s words to his father, Pedro, today reflect Wladimir himself and lead us to an understanding of him”, says Amanda. “Wladimir present, now and always!”

COMMUNIST MILITANT SINCE THE AGE OF 13

Son of Catarina Torres and communist leader Pedro Pomar, one of the victims of the Lapa Massacre, Wladimir Pomar (1936-2023) was born in Belém do Pará,

In 1949, at the age of 13, he also became a member of the Communist Party.

In the 1950s, he was active in the student movement and the metallurgical union movement.

In the 1960s and 1970s, he was a leader of the PCdoB. Arrested in 1964 for resisting the military coup, he lived in hiding until he was arrested again in 1976.

In the 1980s, he joined the PT and was part of the party’s national executive, coordinating the Cajamar Institute and the 1989 Lula President campaign.

Throughout his life, Wladimir wrote several books about Brazilian and global reality.
The autobiography The Name of Life It was launched in 2017 by the publisher Página 13 and reissued the following year by Editora da Fundação Perseu Abramo.

DATASHEET

An Inhamis film

Direction
Amanda Pomar

Road map
Amanda Pomar
Francis Frank

Executive production
Fernanda Roque

Supervision
Fernanda Roque
Francis Frank

Art direction
Amanda Pomar

Layout and scenarios
Amanda Pomar
Daniel Marques
Lucas Borges

Storyboard and animatic
Lucas Borges
Animation
Amanda Pomar
Daniel Marques
Yona Carneiro
2D and 3D rigging
Daniel Marques

Animation production
Fernanda Roque

Voice direction and casting
Vinícius Cristóvão

Voices
Marcos Bavuso: Wladimir Pomar
Sandro Massafera: Pedro Pomar
Jhully Oliveira: Elza Monerat
Vinícius Cristóvão: Evaristo
Bruno Quiossa: Round Face Police Officer
Jovan Ferreira: Big Police Officer
Rodrigo Machado: Policeman 1
Paulo Monttero: Policeman 2

Assembly
Lucas Borges

Original music and sound design
João Castanheira
Lucas Borges

Sound technicians
André Poty
Ge Alvarenga
“O Que Será (A Flor da Terra)”, by Chico Buarque kindly provided by Marola Edições Musicais LTDA

Interpreter
Alice Santiago

Mixing
Ultrasound Music Ideas

Color correction and DCP encode
DOT Cinema

Accessibility
CPL – Accessibility solutions

Translation
Spanish – Carlos Alfredo Paz
French – Mila Frati, Matheus Vieira, Wanda Conti

**********

Thanks

Wladimir Pomar, in memoriam.
Raquel Pomar, Valter Pomar, Nayara Oliveira, Pedro Pomar, Bia Pomar, Filipe Pomar, Carol Proner, Chico Buarque, Aldo Arantes, Dodora Arantes, Maria Ester Cristelli, Fernando Garcia, Jussara Cony, Osvaldo Bertolino, Raul Carrion, Cláudio Gonzalez, Ivone Novaes, Sônia Fardin, Marcella do Carmo, Alessandra Brum, Sérgio Puccini, Rosane Preciosa, Federal University of Juiz de Fora and Fundação Perseu Abramo.