Across the program at the International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA), many filmmakers tried to capture the fleeting fragments of democracy around the world. From Brazil and USA to Afghanistan. As a precursor to our upcoming WHY FREEDOM? campaign in 2026, THE WHY has talked to some of the filmmakers behind these democracy-focused docs.

‍Two different Brazils‍

In Brazil, filmmaker Sandra Kogut followed Bolsonaro and Lula supporters in the lead up to the 2022 presidential election for her documentary ‘At this Moment, in the Nation’s Sky’.
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Talking to people of both political loyalties was an achievement in itself: Kogut was faced with skepticism and distrust at every stage, with some interviewees calling her out as a “leftist filmmaker”. At the end of the film, an Evangelical and Bolsonaro supporter cuts off contact with Kogut, saying, “It's like we’re living in two different Brazils.”

As a way of bridging the gap in this polarized society, Kogut focuses on the tense, lengthy electoral process, using direct cinema and video diaries from the participants. Her film shows how ordinary people, even in remote villages along the Amazon, make democracy happen. 

In an interview with THE WHY, Kogut states:

“I wanted to show some concrete aspects of democracy and not just the concept, in the way they make an election happen, but also in the way people talk to each other and are able to listen to something they don't agree with.”

She continues.

“My feeling watching the electoral justice process work and learning about the process was this is one of the things that make a country a country. Why are we part of a country? It can't only be because we happen to be born in the same geographic place. It must be because we share some common values and a common system.”

In January of 2023, Bolsonaro fans, unable to accept the victory of President Lula da Silva, stormed the Congress and Supreme Court in Brasilia, wreaking terrible damage to these public buildings. It was a physical representation of the destruction of the shared space we are supposed to protect. As Kogut put it: “Whenever the common ground is broken, then it's not democracy anymore.”

Religious nationalism in divided Pennsylvania

IDFA also hosted the world premiere of ‘An American Pastoral’ for which director Auberi Edler won the Best Director Award in the International Competition. It is an examination of the growing influence of ethno-religious nationalism in the election of a school board in a small town in rural Pennsylvania.

One young democrat faces off against extreme right-wing republicans; a group that includes grandmas with AK-47s, Trump supporters who drove rioters to the capitol on January 6th and pastors who instill ideas of white supremacy in their congregations. The main source of conflict amongst the political factions is how the school should regulate access to books containing “immoral or sexual content.” 

Like Kogut, Edler’s film is direct cinema. The camera quietly observing as distrust festers amongst parents and teachers. At the IDFA premiere, Edler spoke about her concern for the insidious social violence that she saw in this small town, that silences people and represses their authentic selves. 

The fight for freedom in Taliban’s Afghanistan

Social and physical violence is rampant in ‘Shot the Voice of Freedom’, a film about women who protested the Taliban regime in Afghanistan after American troops withdrew in 2021. They bravely stand up for their rights to freedom, education and security while Taliban soldiers repress them in every way they can. Filming these scenes was itself a simple rebellion. Switching on the camera turns into an act of democracy. According to Sandra Kogut, documentaries can provide a narrative for a political world that sees us jumping from one scandal to the next, suck in “the eternal present”. Indeed, documentaries such as these put words and images to our idea of democracy.

THE WHY is scheduled to release five documentaries on freedom in early 2026.