Descrição
This article analyzes the controversy surrounding the documentary Cartas para um ladrão de livros. By exposing the theft of rare works of Brazilian public collections, the film’s producers suffered threats of lawsuits, which led to self-censorship. This paper assesses the ironic contradiction between portraying a character pursued by justice due to removing public documents and selling them to private collectors and the consequent legal threat against a documentary that reports the privatization of collective memory. The repercussion of this self-muffled report is also evaluated: few months after its release, the film attracted the attention of reporters of the press, who ended up revealing names of part of the buyers of the stolen public works.||O artigo analisa a polêmica ao redor do documentário Cartas para um ladrão de livros. Ao expor o furto de obras raras de acervos públicos brasileiros, seus produtores sofreram ameaças de processos judiciais, o que levou à autocensura do filme. O trabalho avalia essa irônica contradição entre o retrato de um personagem perseguido pela justiça por roubar documentos públicos e vendê-los para colecionadores privados, e a ameaça judicial contra o documentário que denuncia a privatização da memória coletiva. Para isso, será analisada também a repercussão dessa denúncia automutilada: poucos meses após seu lançamento, o filme atraiu a atenção de repórteres da imprensa, que acabaram revelando nomes antes censurados de compradores das obras.||This article analyzes the controversy surrounding the documentary Cartas para um ladrão de livros. By exposing the theft of rare works of Brazilian public collections, the film’s producers suffered threats of lawsuits, which led to self-censorship. This paper assesses the ironic contradiction between portraying a character pursued by justice due to removing public documents and selling them to private collectors and the consequent legal threat against a documentary that reports the privatization of collective memory. The repercussion of this self-muffled report is also evaluated: few months after its release, the film attracted the attention of reporters of the press, who ended up revealing names of part of the buyers of the stolen public works.||This article analyzes the controversy surrounding the documentary Cartas para um ladrão de livros. By exposing the theft of rare works of Brazilian public collections, the film’s producers suffered threats of lawsuits, which led to self-censorship. This paper assesses the ironic contradiction between portraying a character pursued by justice due to removing public documents and selling them to private collectors and the consequent legal threat against a documentary that reports the privatization of collective memory. The repercussion of this self-muffled report is also evaluated: few months after its release, the film attracted the attention of reporters of the press, who ended up revealing names of part of the buyers of the stolen public works.
