Beyond Citizen Kane is a 1993 British documentary film directed by Simon Hartog, produced by John Ellis, and first broadcast on Channel 4. It details the dominant position of the Globo media group, the largest in Brazil, and discusses the group's influence, power, and political connections. Globo's president and founder Roberto Marinho was criticised and compared to the fictional newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane, created by Orson Welles for the 1941 film Citizen Kane. According to the documentary, Marinho's media group engages in manipulation of news to influence public opinion. Nevertheless, copies sold in Britain reached Brazil in the 1990s and circulated widely there.

In addition, since the internet boom of the early 21st century, the film has been released on video-sharing websites such as YouTube and Google Video.

Plot summary

The documentary tracks Globo's involvement with and support of the Brazilian military government; its illegal partnership of the 1960s with the American group Time-Life; Marinho's political connections (notably its owner's connections with Antonio Carlos Magalhães, Minister of Telecommunications) and manoeuvres (such as airing in Jornal Nacional, the network's prime time news programme since 1969, highlights of a 1989 presidential debate edited in a way as to favour Fernando Collor de Mello); and a controversial deal involving shares of NEC Corporation and government contracts. It features interviews with 21 people, including noted Brazilian politicians and cultural figures, such as politicians Leonel Brizola and Antonio Carlos Magalhães, singer-songwriter Chico Buarque, former Justice Minister Armando Falcão, politician Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (who would serve as President from 2003 to 2010 and again since 2023); and former employees Walter Clark, Wianey Pinheiro and Armando Nogueira.

Through the 1990s, the film was illegally screened by universities, political groups and unions, as copies were made available informally.

On 14 February 2011, the newspaper Jornal do Brasil (quoting the network's spokesperson) reported that Rede Record would broadcast the documentary in 2012.

See also

  • Criticism of Rede Globo
  • Partido da Imprensa Golpista
  • Concentration of media ownership
  • Censorship in Brazil
  • 1993 in British television

References

  • BBC: Brazilian media magnate dies
  • 2008 interview with John Ellis on Folha Online
  • Observatório da Imprensa – Muito Além do Cidadão Kane
  • Sociólogo francês compara Marinho a Berlusconi
  • PUC Minas Library Record

Video

  • Download the film (Audio is Portuguese. Few parts have audio in English with Portuguese subtitles)
  • Mirror | Torrent (Audio is Portuguese. Few parts have audio in English with Portuguese subtitles)
  • Beyond Citizen Kane – download and streaming (Audio is Portuguese. Few parts have audio in English with Portuguese subtitles)
  • Beyond Citizen Kane in its entirety on Large Door's YouTube channel (Audio is in its original English)