Documentary film as parallel epistemology: Brasil Paralelo's right-wing media production

As digital platforms changed the way we communicate, they also intensified a wave of right-wing populism, disinformation, and political polarization. While much has been discussed about Trump and the United States’ right-wing media ecosystem (Schradie, 2019; Tripodi, 2022), there has been less attention to developments outside the dominant Western world.

In Brazil, as in other major democracies, internet access has likewise empowered a wave of right-wing populism, disinformation, and the erosion of trust in traditional media (Cesarino, 2022). Through online activism, right-wing movements have constructed what can be described as “parallel epistemologies”, or alternative interpretations of politics, culture and reality, positioned against mainstream academic and journalistic authority.

It is not a coincidence that, in the Brazilian context, one of the main forces promoting those epistemologies is a company founded in 2016 called Brasil Paralelo (Parallel Brazil). In this short commentary, I focus on the context, content and strategies Brasil Paralelo (BP) employs to leverage digital platforms, disseminate right-wing ideology and advance their alternative epistemology.

Brazil and the growth of digital authoritarianism

Brazil's trajectory of social media-fueled polarization can be traced back to 2013, with the Jornadas de Junho (June Journeys), protests organized through social media. The demonstrations, which began as left-leaning protests against rising transportation fares, quickly escalated after brutal police repression. As demonstrations grew, demands broadened against the political class, especially as the 2014 FIFA World Cup approached and discontent grew over public spending and scandals like Operation Car Wash, a major anti-corruption probe that uncovered systemic bribery involving politicians and state-owned companies. ¹

Right-wing groups such as Movimento Brasil Livre (MBL) and Revoltados Online quickly dominated the protests, leveraging Facebook pages with millions of followers. These pages helped shape a broader anti-establishment culture, targeting politicians, corruption, Congress, the media, and especially the hegemony of the Workers’ Party (PT). This discontent was embraced and amplified by Brazil's mainstream media, which helped transform a movement that had started on the left into a national movement targeting Dilma Rousseff's (PT) presidential administration.

The rise of this right-wing political force, highly organized and adept at using digital media, is central to what Rosa and colleagues (2025) define as techno-conservatism: a modernized conservatism that strategically instrumentalizes platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and WhatsApp to spread ideology and monetize attention. In Brazil, this movement brought together economic liberals, conservative Christians, military sectors, agrarian elites and other factions, forming a reactionary counter-public that blended neoliberal ideology, anti-communism and cultural conservatism (Rosa et al., 2025). This coalition grew and secured successive political victories such as Dilma's impeachment, the imprisonment of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the election of right-wing populist leader Jair Bolsonaro.

Brazilian conservatism has deep historical roots, but this new organized movement was only possible with the advent of digital platforms. As Rosa and colleagues point out, its intellectual foundation can be traced to Olavo de Carvalho, a self-proclaimed philosopher who had been writing, publishing, and promoting courses online. Influenced by U.S. culture wars and American conservatism, de Carvalho framed politics as a battle between the good (Christian-Western) and the bad (progressive ideologies), and built a base of followers that gained visibility in public life once they started to engage with Bolsonaro's administration (2018–2022).

Beyond Facebook and YouTube, this movement expanded its presence into a broader media ecosystem—including traditional radio like Jovem Pan, but also new digital outlets such as the news site O Antagonista (2015), the YouTube channel Terça Livre (2018) and the online magazine Revista Oeste (2020). These channels emerged after the 2013–2016 protests, claiming conservative viewpoints were underrepresented in mainstream media and academia. Within this context, Brasil Paralelo was created in 2016, but beyond news, it became a vehicle for right-wing historical revisionism, using documentary films as a persuasive tool to contest political narratives.

Reviewing history through a conservative Lens

Brasil Paralelo began producing films shortly after its founding in 2016, starting with a series of interviews with conservative figures in the aftermath of Dilma's impeachment, marked by strong animosity toward the left (Carvalho and Rovida, 2020; Rosa et al., 2024). Riding the new wave of conservatism, BP expanded its strategy to invest in podcasts, courses, books and films distributed on its own private platform, branded as a “Netflix for conservatism” ² . Their main product became original documentary productions, a genre historically used to persuade and mobilize political sentiment. Drawing on what Nichols (2017) defines as the expository documentary mode, a style in which an authoritative narrator guides the audience with a clear, direct narrative, they started to produce films to revisit Brazilian history, aligned with their conservative viewpoints.

Their first documentary series, Brasil: A Última Cruzada (Brazil: The Last Crusade), has been widely criticized as an ideological project rather than a genuine historical documentary. Researchers describe it as a form of “alt-history”—derived from the idea of “alt-right”— that reorganizes the past into heroic narratives framing Portuguese colonization as a civilizing project (Oliveira Brito and Rodrigues Junior, 2021). Moraes and Cleto (2023) observe that the production centers on a Eurocentric-Christian narrative, relying on omissions and distortions to erase the complexities of colonial domination and slavery, while reinforcing monarchic nostalgia.

BP's narrative strategy is to reduce complex issues to simplistic binaries, where left-wing and progressive movements are evil, and traditional Western values are good, leaving no room for contrasting perspectives (Carvalho and Rovida, 2020; Rosa et al., 2024). Another tactic is to frame content as forbidden revelations hidden by mainstream media and scholarship, reinforcing the notion that scholars and journalists are biased (Cleto, 2024).

This framework is evident in their most-watched documentary, 1964 – Brasil Entre Livros e Armas (1964 – Brazil Between Books and Weapons), in which they review the history of Brazilian military dictatorship. Despite acknowledging 1964 was indeed a coup d’etat, the film endorses the military version, exaggerating the communist threat and depicting the dictatorship as an effort to protect the country, while minimizing repression and political violence (Cleto, 2024; Rodrigues, 2022).

The same binarism appears in films about education, gender, feminism, and environmentalism, among other culture-war topics. Cortina de Fumaça (Smokescreen), for instance, is anchored on the idea that environmentalism and indigenous rights are conspiracies orchestrated by foreign powers to undermine national interests. The film features interviews with politicians from across the political spectrum but always reinforcing the defense of agribusiness and reducing the environment to resources to be exploited, even by indigenous groups who should be “civilized” and assimilated (Dayrell Santos et al., 2024). Pátria Educadora (Educational Homeland) uses voice and diverse archival materials to portray Western education as decaying into Marxism, accusing teachers of indoctrination and directing particular criticism at Paulo Freire, the internationally renowned Brazilian educator (Felinto, 2023). A Face Oculta do Feminismo (The Hidden Face of Feminism) uses interviews with conservative women and archival footage to demonize feminism, suggesting it is a threat to femininity and social order (Holanda, 2024). Similarly, Geração Sem Gênero (Genderless Generation) blurs concepts of gender identity, biological sex, and sexuality, exploring controversial, high-profile media cases, such as transgender participation in sports and children undergoing gender-affirming medical treatments, to frame gender diversity as an existential threat (Fernandes et al., 2025).

During the Bolsonaro administration (2018–2022), Brasil Paralelo fully aligned with the government, producing films that endorsed the president's anti-science and conspiratorial agenda. These included 7 denúncias (7 Allegations), which questioned COVID-19 safety measures; Dossiê Urnas Eletrônicas (Electronic Voting Dossier), alleging voting fraud; and Quem Mandou Matar Jair Bolsonaro? (Who Ordered Jair Bolsonaro to be Killed?), which centers on the 2018 stabbing of Bolsonaro during a campaign rally, which is often used to advance conspiracy theories. During the 2022 elections, the judiciary ordered the removal of the last film and demonetized BP's YouTube channel ³ , a decision BP publicly framed as censorship, while the company also voluntarily removed content about the electronic voting to avoid further controversy.

Digital Media affordances

Documentary filmmaking is instrumentally used by BP to persuade and give authority and legitimacy to their positions. Through carefully selected interviews, voice-overs, illustrative b-rolls and evidentiary editing, they create a polished sense of credibility and neutrality. However, rather than inviting critical thinking, the films guide the audience toward powerful ideological messaging.

Furthermore, three other factors are essential to their success. The first is targeted advertising. BP has invested heavily to ensure their content appears at the top of search results and social media feeds. According to the transparency reports from Meta and Google (2025), Brasil Paralelo is among Brazil's largest advertisers on political and social issues, having spent approximately USD 5.4 million on Meta and USD 314,000 on Google Ads. These investments, comparable only to federal government spending and presidential campaigns, underscore the infrastructure supporting BP and its lucrative relationship with major technology corporations.

The second factor is search engine optimization (SEO), which they skillfully exploit to keep their content highly visible. By strategically using keywords, they make it far more likely that people searching online will encounter their material first. This strategy reverses the information hierarchy, placing controversial perspectives at the top and pushing more rigorous academic sources aside.

Lastly, BP is embedded in an ecosystem of right-wing activists, politicians, and social influencers who routinely repost video excerpts and amplify their content. YouTube remains central to monetization and engagement through livestreams, podcasts, and long format videos. However, this material is also promoted between groups of people, across other platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Instagram.

Taken together, these elements reveal a complex right-wing media ecosystem that thrives not only because algorithms favor controversial content. Its success also depends on heavy investments and coordinated promotion that are not cheap or incidental.

Discussion: Brasil Paralelo and its parallel epistemology

The analysis of BP's films reveals a more complex strategy than simply spreading fake news and disinformation. They anchor their narratives in verifiable facts, reframed through distortions, omissions, and selective use of sources. This rhetorical operation allows them to present their perspective as scientifically grounded, while claiming others are ideological (Rosa et al., 2024). This constitutes the parallel epistemology of right-wing media, the construction of an alternative version of reality that feels credible and reinforces the beliefs of those already inclined to accept it.

The epistemological battle is therefore not fought through content alone, but also through the infrastructures that shape what circulates online. Although algorithms are often blamed for changing political perceptions, platforms have more subtle forms of influence by prioritizing and legitimizing actors who invest heavily in ads, SEO and network amplification. The BP case underscores distinct dimensions of digital authoritarianism and, in context, helps us understand why conservative movements have been particularly effective at leveraging digital platforms.