“Pele” premieres on SescTV, turning walls into history

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2 semanas atrás

Without interviews or narration, “Pele” premieres on SescTV on 13/2 at 10pm, reading political and intimate memory from Brazil’s city walls.

In “Pele”, walls stop being background and become evidence. Director Marcos Pimentel turns graffiti, tags, posters and street slogans into a living archive of Brazil’s recent memory.

Premiering on 13/2 at 10pm on SescTV, the film moves through Belo Horizonte—plus, to a lesser extent, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro—capturing traces that survive erasure and retell the present from the street up.

When the city testifies

The idea is simple and sharp: treat urban surfaces like skin—marked by scars, layers, and lingering memories. Across this map of words and images, echoes of events that shaped Brazil’s national imagination surface, including Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment, Marielle Franco’s assassination, and President Lula’s imprisonment—seen not as news footage, but as everyday inscriptions.

Known for films attentive to the body, time, and sensory experience, Pimentel embraces an observational approach here. The camera glides through the city and lets public space set the tempo of remembrance.

An essay with no explanations

With no direct interviews and no explanatory voice-over, “Pele” relies on editing to connect street art and daily life. Anonymous passersby cross the frame—walking, running, working out—quietly counterpointing the political narratives printed on walls.

The result plays like an audiovisual essay on memory, conflict, and democratic expression—where the city is not a setting, but a historical subject.