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DOPS: an archeology of violence

The Police Department of Social and Political Order (DOPS) was created in the decade of 1920 to monitor unions, left wing intellectuals and members of the newly created Communist Party. The film contrasts the discourse of the institution in the beginning of the 1970’s with the testimony of two political prisoners who were held there in the same period. The film seeks to expose the modus operandi of the DOPS, underlying the abuse of its repressive force during and after the military regime (1964-1985) and the narrative dispute that occurred during the investigations of the Parliamentary Commission of Investigation (CPI) of the Prison System in the Minas Gerais State in 1997.

  • Sanzio Dolabela Canfora
    Director
  • Thelma Yanagisawa Shimomura
    Writer
  • Débora Raiza Carolina Rocha Silva
    Writer
  • Ângela Dolabela Cânfora
    Writer
  • Denise Costa
    Writer
  • Marina Camisasca
    Writer
  • Pauline Araújo
    Writer
  • Pedro Pablo Fermín Maguire
    Writer
  • Sanzio Dolabela Canfora
    Writer
  • Sanzio Dolabela Canfora
    Producer
  • Emely Vieira Salazar
    Key Cast
  • Sálvio Humberto Penna
    Key Cast
  • João Dumans
    Editor
  • Guilherme Reis
    Director of Photography
  • Luiza Almeida
    Color Grading
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    DOPS: uma arqueologia da violência
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 15 minutes 12 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    July 25, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    30,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Brazil
  • Country of Filming:
    Brazil
  • Language:
    Portuguese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital 4k
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Sanzio Dolabela Canfora

Sanzio Canfora is a 59 years old Brazilian-Italian psychoanalyst who lived in London for 15 years, where he took the BA in Film, Photography and Multimedia and the MA in Photographic Studies (1992-1997), both at the Westminster University in London, where he also taught between 2001 and 2003. After returning to Brazil in 2003, he helped create the BA in Film & Audiovisual Arts at the Centro Universitário Una in Belo Horizonte, where he taught the subjects of Screenplay Writing and Film & Psychoanalysis for ten years (2006-2016). He is a screenplay writer and independent screenplay consultant. Between 2017-2018, he was a project consultant of the Brazilian Nacional Film Agency (ANCINE). In 2019, he became a filmmaker and is releasing in 2024 his first political feature documentary entitled “DOPS: an archeology of violence”. His second documentary feature film – “The President and the Veterinarian: an essay on the political subject” – takes president Lula as a lawfare case study and is at the moment in post-production stage. He is also working on his first feature fiction screenplay about a psychoanalyst treating prisoners at a prison complex.

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