50 years ago, journalist Vladimir Herzog voluntarily presented himself to DOI-CODI – the repression body of the military dictatorship subordinate to the Army, where he was arrested without a court order. Hours later, after being interrogated under torture, he was killed by the Brazilian state, on October 25, 1975. The murder of Vlado, who was director of Journalism at TV Cultura, was a milestone that generated great mobilization against repression and the fight for democracy.
Five decades after its execution, new productions contribute to the preservation of the legacy, including the launch of a documentary and podcast, as well as a tool that uses artificial intelligence to simulate responses in Vlado’s voice, based on the journalist’s collection of productions.
The documentary “Vlado’s Life – 50 years of the Herzog case”, produced by TV Cultura, will air on the channel, this Saturday (25), from 11pm. The production, which features previously unpublished materials, tells the story of the Herzog family and Vladimir’s life until his death, in addition to showing the legacy of the journalist’s life, maintained by the Vladimir Herzog Institute (IVH).
Director of Journalism at TV Cultura, Marília Assef said that the film features unpublished photos and documents, as well as interviews with people who worked and lived with Vlado.
“”Documentary shows unpublished documents, unpublished photos, profiles of people who worked with him, telling exactly what he was like, right? How he acted, how he talked to people.”
The documentary also rescues rare films recorded during the Ecumenical Service at the Sé Cathedral, on October 31, 1975, when more than 8 thousand people gathered for an act in honor of Herzog, led by religious leaders such as Cardinal Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns, Rabbi Henry Sobel and Reverend Jaime Wright, with the support of journalist Audálio Dantas, then president of the Union of Journalists of São Paulo. The event became a symbol of democratic resistance.
Now, in the podcast O Caso Herzog: The photo and the farce, journalist Camilo Vannuchi interviews photographer Silvaldo Leong, who took the image of Vlado’s body hanging in DOI-CODI.
“And we now had the opportunity to pick up Silvaldo and go with him to DOI-CODI in the same corridor and in the same cell so he could recreate that episode. The photo is a hoax. They simulated the suicide with Herzog hanging from a window with the supposed cloth belt that would be part of the prisoners’ uniform, but the prison uniform of the man did not have a belt, and above all this DOI-CODI window, where he This window was hung at 1.63 meters, it is shorter than Herzog himself. It’s a whole situation that is inconceivable according to all the experts and doctors.”
The production also includes interviews, documents and unpublished audio.
Journalist Paulo Markun, who was a friend and worked with him at TV Cultura, also developed a tool, using artificial intelligence, that creates responses with Vlado’s voice, based on materials produced by him throughout his life.
Markun, who was imprisoned at DOI-CODI on the date of Herzog’s murder, recalls that there was even an investigation to mask the crime.
“They then put me in a room with other journalists who were under arrest, the head of the party and some interrogators and presented a version there that was: Vlado was from the KGB, a Russian secret agent, he was from the communist party, he had committed suicide. And the party commanders were not those we imagined but a general, a governor, a cardinal. All of this was a farce and a fiction. We tried to argue there in the discussion with these men, right? But they insisted he had killed himself. For the press, they published a photo that everyone has seen, with Vlado dead with his legs bowed, right? And there was even an investigation to mask his murder. ”
And on Sunday (26), the Recognition Walk will be inaugurated at Vladimir Herzog Memorial Square in São Paulo. This is a permanent intervention in the space, with the installation on the floor of the names of all the people and collectives that won the Vladimir Herzog Journalistic Award for Amnesty and Human Rights, one of the most important in the country.
One of the tributes will be to all the workers at Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC), who received, in 2022, the Special Vladimir Herzog Contribution to Journalism Award, for their resistance in defending public communication. The recognition resulted from the professionals’ performance during Jair Bolsonaro’s government, when censorship, governmentism and persecution were widespread in the company.
