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Territory

Territory follows the electoral campaign of Geraldo, a community leader from the outskirts of São Paulo (Brazil) and a candidate for city council with the Workers’ Party in the 2024 municipal elections.
Amid declining support for the left in his neighborhood, this ethnographic documentary captures Geraldo’s struggle to adapt to modern campaign strategies and confront the rise of the far right in his community. The film also follows how other residents experience this political moment, revealing how religion, crime, and entrepreneurial values are reshaping people's perceptions of politics and democracy.

  • TELMA HOYLER
    Director
  • TELMA HOYLER
    Writer
  • Caio Ferraz
    Producer
  • Geraldo Araújo
    Key Cast
  • WELLINGTON da Silva
    Key Cast
  • RAFAEL Roger Vieira de Lima
    Key Cast
  • Isaac Faria
    Key Cast
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Território
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 27 minutes 54 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    July 25, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    9,000 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    Brazil
  • Country of Filming:
    Brazil
  • Language:
    Portuguese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, 24 fps, 4K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.85
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - TELMA HOYLER

Telma Hoyler is a documentary filmmaker, visual artist, and researcher based in São Paulo, Brazil. With a PhD in Political Science from the University of São Paulo (2017–2022), an academic exchange at Sciences Po Paris (2019–2020), and a postdoctoral fellowship at University College London (2023), her work sits at the intersection of social science research and visual storytelling.
Her research investigates the dynamics of political participation, local power structures, and democratic practice in urban peripheries. These themes inform her documentary and artistic production, which is rooted in long-term fieldwork and a deep engagement with the people and spaces she portrays.
Hoyler’s creative process draws from ethnographic methods and combines writing, drawing, sewing, and video and sound-based installations. Her practice often unfolds through time-based series and site-specific interventions, with a strong focus on how everyday life and political subjectivities are shaped in contemporary Brazil. Besides academic publications, she has co-produced and participated in many visual exhibitions, including Living Democracy (Brunei Gallery, London, Jan-March 2024) and The Rule and the exception (Atelier397, São Paulo, Apr-June 2023).
Território is her debut feature-length documentary.

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Director Statement

Território was born from years of field research in São Paulo’s urban periphery, where I investigated the role of grassroots political actors navigating a changing political landscape. As a political scientist and documentarian, I was compelled to explore how democratic ideals are reinterpreted — and sometimes contested — in spaces marked by inequality, religiosity, and the everyday presence of violence.

Rather than approaching this film as a neutral observer, I chose an immersive and collaborative methodology. I followed Geraldo — a long-time community organizer and first-time city council candidate — not only as a subject, but as a narrator of his own experience. This film seeks to document the friction between political hope and institutional disillusionment, especially in a context where the left faces growing resistance and the far right is gaining ground.

Visually, I tried to adopt a grounded and sensorial style that prioritizes proximity and intimacy over spectacle. I wanted the camera to stay close to the emotional labour of political work — the body language, the silences, the contradictions. The aesthetic of Território is rooted in ethnographic sensibility and open to poetic interpretation.

Through Território, I hope to raise questions about what democracy feels like when lived from the margins. I am very grateful to the people who allowed me to learn with/from them.

— Telma Hoyler