Ethical and political challenges on the video Vida Estelita: political subjectivities in becoming

Abstract

Vida Estelita is a memorialist record of the Cais José Estelita occupation in 2014, which took place in the city of Recife, Pernambuco. The interviewees talk not only about the fight for the territory but also about their desire for new forms of life. The filmmakers have edited to the  final cut some youngsters’ testimonies actively exposing themselves when confronted with the established order. In this context, Vida Estelita reopens the discussion on ethics in the documentary: how to depict other people? How is it possible to do that without diminishing their potentials? How to not camou age those struggling forms of life? These ethical dilemmas grow bigger in the case of militant cinema in which “the lm wanted to be done opposes that one that should be done”.