Best Documentary: IFP Gotham Award Nominees (from A to Z)
American Factory
Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert, directors; Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert, Jeff Reichert, Julie Parker Benello, producers (Netflix)
Apollo 11
Todd Douglas Miller, director; Todd Douglas Miller, Thomas Baxley Petersen, Evan Krauss, producers (NEON and CNN Films)
The Edge of Democracy
Petra Costa, director; Petra Costa, Tiago Pavan, Joanna Natasegara, Shane Boris, producers (Netflix)
Midnight Traveler
Hassan Fazili, director; Emelie Mahdavian, Su Kim, producers (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
One Child Nation
Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang, directors; Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang, Christoph Jörg, Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, Carolyn Hepburn, producers (Amazon Studios)
The Edge of Democracy (Brazilian Portuguese: Democracia em Vertigem)
World premiering at the 2019 Sundance Film Fest on January 24, 2019, the docu was acquired by Netflix, which released it worldwide on June 19, 2019, along with a short theatrical run in New York and Los Angeles.
An angry portrait of Brazil’s slide back into dictatorship, Petra Costa’s The Edge of Democracy offers a chronicle of civic betrayal and power abuse.
The tale follows the filmmaker’s political past in a personal, intimate way, placed against the contexts of the first mandate of President Lula and the process that culminated in the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff. In the process, it analyzes the rise and fall of these rulers and the consequent polarization of Brazil.
The tale follows the filmmaker’s political past in a personal, intimate way, placed against the contexts of the first mandate of President Lula and the process that culminated in the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff. In the process, it analyzes the rise and fall of these rulers and the consequent polarization of Brazil.
Costa has crafted an intimate primer about the state’s descent into populism and the dangerous decline of its democratic fabric.