LHT HIGGS Produções Audiovisuais LTDA, better known by its trade name Brasil Paralelo, is a Brazilian company founded in 2016, in Porto Alegre, that produces documentaries offering conservative viewpoints on politics, history and current events.
[1][2][3][4] The videos are published on YouTube and have been shown since December 9, 2019 on TV Escola, a state television channel linked to the Ministry of Education[5][6] and, since April 6, 2021, on the Panflix platform of the Jovem Pan group.
According to a survey by the Aos Fatos agency, Brasil Paralelo is also the second largest Telegram channel in the world, with 80 thousand subscribers, losing to the profile of Allan dos Santos, from Terça Livre.
[26] LHT HIGGS Produções Audiovisuais LTDA[27] was founded in Porto Alegre in 2016 by Lucas Ferrugem, Henrique Viana and Felipe Valerim,[10] alumni of the Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing[13] amid the rise of a conservative wave in Brazil.
"[30]However, divergent information was published by the newspaper Le Monde Diplomatique Brasil, which argues that since its origin the producer has been linked to a series of privileges in the coverage of political personalities not accessible to ordinary people, in addition to benefiting from the facilitation in raising funds from the National Film Agency (Ancine) for the production of a documentary on the election of Jair Bolsonaro.
Leaving aside judgment of values on the peculiar taste of the audience, we must recognize the capacity to reach important figures, such as deputies, senators and three ministers - personalities not accessible to ordinary people [...] For comparison purposes, the documentary on the election of Jair Bolsonaro produced by Josias Teófilo (who collaborated with Brasil Paralelo) was authorized by Ancine to raise R$ 530 thousand from the private sector.
[33] In São Paulo, the premiere took place at Cinemark Metrô Santa Cruz and after the screening of the film, there was a live debate with Henrique Viana, Ícaro de Carvalho, Luiz Philippe of Orléans-Braganza, Hélio Beltrão and Joice Hasselmann.
[34] The following day the seminary "What to expect in 2017" was held at the Legislative Assembly of Rio Grande do Sul, with the presence of the journalist and architect Percival Puggina, diplomat Paulo Roberto de Almeida and deputy Marcel van Hattem, in which Brasil Paralelo's activities were discussed.
[16] which classified the material as "a piece of ideological propaganda by an extremist group", containing "lying and denialist versions of history", without support in national and international historiography.
[25] According to a survey by the agency Aos Fatos published on February 4, 2021, Brasil Paralelo is the second largest Telegram channel in the world, with 80 thousand subscribers, second only to the profile of Allan dos Santos, from Terça Livre.
[26] Historians have criticized the company for the negationist and anti-intellectualist content[36] of its videos, for distorting historical facts such as the military dictatorship, slavery and the colonization of Brazil and disseminating conspiracy and denialist theories [37][38][14] promoted by Olavo de Carvalho,[19][20] Jair Bolsonaro[21][22] and Ernesto Araújo.
Filled with Islamophobia, the episode focuses on the Arab conquest of the Iberian Peninsula and the Crusades, highlighting the role of the Knights Templar in European and Portuguese history, including the so-called Reconquistae and the expansion abroad.
[...] Brazil offers fertile ground for an imaginary version of the European Middle Ages that the extreme right presents as white, patriarchal and Christian.
You would have a defense of the Christian religion against Islam, a military movement - and, there, all the characteristics of masculinity, of virility, of strength - and this East versus West issue, which leads to the construction of an idea of Western civilization.
[45][46] In December 2019, the philosopher Paulo Ghiraldelli defined Brasil Paralelo as "the producer of Olavo [de Carvalho]", ideologue of the new Brazilian right, and said that it was an ideological rigging.
[47] About the TV Escola exhibition of the Brasil series: the last crusade, the regional São Paulo of the National History Association (ANPUH-SP) issued a joint note with professors and students from the University of São Paulo, in which it classified the material as "a play of ideological propaganda of an extremist group", containing "lying and denialist versions of history", without support in national and international historiography:[25] The series is, in fact, a piece of ideological propaganda by an extremist group.
The objective of the series is to defend a political position of the extreme right, aligned with the thinking of the current group that exercises the Presidency of the Republic and their particular war against culture and scientific knowledge.
[48] Historian Ítalo Nelli Borges pointed out political propaganda in the company's content: By acting outside institutionalized educational environments, Brasil Paralelo takes this to the letter with a lot of propaganda skills for its target audience [...] Social networks, in general, have become a platform where the largest and most diverse audience is concentrated, willing to consume historical content, and in this sense, with the current design of our socio-political situation, the extreme right has been better adapted to this form of communication.
[16] With its premiere on August 21, 2018, Teatro das Tesouras approached the backstage of seven Brazilian presidential elections after the end of the Military Dictatorship established by the 1964 civil-military coup.
[54][55] From 2019, the release of the 1964 documentary: Brazil between Arms and Books on the Cinemark cinema network was canceled due to protests against the relativization of state repression and torture during the Brazilian military dictatorship.
[3] The Owners of Truth sought to defend Abraham Weintraub's speeches through the argument of freedom of expression, while 7 complaints: the consequences of the COVID-19 case directed criticism to the measure of physical distance in the fight against the pandemic of COVID-19 and its formulators and disseminators.
[3] Both productions motivated the observation of adhesion by Brasil Paralelo to the "digital shock troop of the president" Jair Bolsonaro, expressed by journalist Fábio Zanini.
[3][57] The fact-checking agencies of Estadão and O Globo identified the transmission of fake news in two videos released close to the 2018 presidential elections on the Brazilian electronic ballot boxes.
These examples, according to experts heard by DW Brasil, are part of a larger strategy, of a movement that seeks to legitimize its political projects from a distorted view of academic historiography practiced by historians in Brazil and in the world based on scientific methods.
Promoted by the ideologue Olavo de Carvalho and his followers, including Chancellor Ernesto Araújo and Federal Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, the president's son, this historic denialism is fraught with conspiracy theories, inaccuracies and omissions.
[65] Writing for Piauí magazine, Eduardo Escorel said that one of Brasil Paralelo's productions is didactic political propaganda:[66] 1964: Brazil between Arms and Books is not exactly a film; it seems more like an updated version of the conferences made during the silent cinema era to finance the incursions of explorers and travelers through distant and exotic lands.
[66] In May 2019, a monitoring of social media profiles by the Agência Pública listed Brasil Paralelo as "part of alternative support sites for the Bolsonaro government" alongside the Terça Livre, Senso Incomum, Conexão Política, Reaçonaria and Renova Mídia.
[3] The Owners of Truth sought to defend Abraham Weintraub's speeches through the argument of freedom of expression, while 7 complaints: the consequences of the COVID-19 case directed criticism to the measure of physical distance in the fight against the pandemic of COVID-19 and its formulators and disseminators.
[3] Both productions motivated the observation of adhesion by Brasil Paralelo to the "digital shock troop of the president" Jair Bolsonaro, expressed by journalist Fábio Zanini.
Lucas Ferrugem, one of the company's founders, classified the entry as "absurd and defamatory" and explained that the producer had tried to collaborate on the Wikipedia page, but "could no longer edit, correct information and submit new sources" and that is why his office would have entered the scene".