MANY HANDS MAKE LIGHT WORK
This documentary dives into the tireless work of activists from the Memory, Truth, Justice, Reparations, and Democracy collectives (MTJRD) based in Rio de Janeiro. People from all walks of life come together through horizontal, non-hierarchical, and collectively organized practices to fight for the preservation of memory and justice within civil society. Over nearly six decades, their shared labor—rooted in collaboration rather than individual leadership—has laid the groundwork for the creation of a Museum of Human Rights in the now crumbling and shuttered eclectic landmark that once housed Rio’s DOPS, the Departamento de Ordem Política e Social (Department of Political and Social Order). A powerful symbol of state repression under Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964–1985), the abandoned building still holds a wealth of material history, including scores of severely deteriorated documents that have been patiently recovered and archived by the activist collectives.
These images document the former DOPS building in Rio de Janeiro and the performance/action “Many Hands Make Light Work” (12/13/2024), supported by the SMFA Traveling Fellowship and organized in partnership with the Memory, Truth, Justice, Reparations, and Democracy Collectives. Built as the Central Police in 1924 and converted into Brazil’s political police headquarters during the dictatorship (1964–1985), and flaunting an imposing eclectic architecture, this building became a notorious center of repression, political incarceration, and the confiscation of sacred objects from Afro-Brazilian religions. Today, its abandoned interiors reveal decaying structures and dictatorship-era documents scattered or stuffed into trash bags. Marking the AI-5 decree (December 13, 1968), one of the regime’s darkest moments, family members and survivors of state violence, along with memory and reparations activists, were invited to participate in a collective action, passing 500 pounds of rock salt hand to hand, depositing it at the central gate. These images capture the contrast between historical erasure and resistance, embodied in the demand to transform the site into a Museum for Human Rights.
