Orgy of the Rouanet Law: Lula reopens the coffers of the Ministry of Culture

Three hundred thousand reais for the recording, during streaming times, of 2 thousand music DVDs; another R$300,000 for the distribution of 8,000 sticker albums about the tradition of a city in the interior of São Paulo; BRL 960,000 to produce a catalog with the theme “sustainability”; and BRL 5 million for a project that caused controversy this week: a play by actress Claudia Raia. These initiatives join another 2,000, all authorized to raise funds under the Rouanet Law. The announcement was made this week by the Minister of Culture, Margareth Menezes, who released R$ 1 billion to fund them.

“In just 20 days of work, the Ministry of Culture (MinC) identified the projects that had already been released by Rouanet, but which were blocked by the previous administration”, said Margareth, celebrating what she called “wonderful news”. The good news for artists, however, resurrected a dark and nebulous past of the PT era that bothers tax payers, especially with regard to two topics: 1) amount of money allocated to approved projects, whose quality is quite dubious; 2) selection criteria that privilege big fish or works with a leftist bias.

Dark and hazy past

Named Rouanet in honor of Sérgio Paulo Rouanet, creator of the law and Secretary of Culture for Fernando Collor de Mello, the law instituted the National Support Program for Culture, on December 23, 1991. The device aims to encourage cultural projects as a way to spin the economy and value art. Over the years, Rouanet came to be criticized by sectors of society, due to the way it was used by government officials.

The disrespect also extends to the churches in Salvador, Bahia, which for decades have been waiting for help from the cultural sector for reforms.

In 2013, during Dilma Rousseff’s first term, the documentary O Vilão da República, about the life of José Dirceu, obtained authorization to raise R$ 1.5 million from Rouanet. The director’s idea was to “accompany the intimacy of this controversial character, at an important moment in his life”. The film narrates the story of Dirceu, recounting his trajectory in the guerrillas, his arrival at the first echelon of the Lula government until his conviction, when the former minister was sentenced to more than ten years, in the Mensalão trial.

Seven years earlier, the film Brizola, Tempos de Luta got almost R$ 2 million from Rouanet, to talk about the past of the former governor of Rio de Janeiro. At the same time, the MinC, under Lula, had denied sponsorship to a film about former governor of São Paulo Mário Covas, from the PSDB. Among the companies that financially supported the Brizola project are the state-owned companies Petrobras (R$592,000), Eletrobras (R$300,000) and CEEE (R$50,000).

Still in the wake of privileges for more left-wing works, in 2011, singer Bebel Gilberto, a supporter of Lula and Dilma Rousseff, raised almost R$2 million for a tour of Brazil. The money had been released by his aunt, the then Minister of Culture, Ana de Hollanda, sister of the composer Chico Buarque. Bebel would have had advantages over other artists. With the amount, she recorded a CD and performed in 11 cities around the country. Ana denied any irregularity in the process that benefited her niece. Worn out, the minister later left the folder.

Another project that drew attention, not so much for its content, but for its price and who proposed it, concerns a blog by the singer Maria Bethânia, called “The World Needs Poetry”. The work obtained permission to raise R$ 1.3 million. At the time, the case raised a debate about whether Maria Bethânia, an already established artist, needed the Rouanet Law to get sponsorship, instead of giving space to smaller artists looking for companies that can help them show their work. In social networks, the value was also questioned. That’s because a blog can be hosted for free on platforms like Medium and WordPress. After the negative repercussions, the singer gave up the idea. In 2022, Bethânia “made the L”, during a show, and declared her vote for candidate Lula.

Added to all these problems are more serious frauds, due to the lack of adequate oversight and transparency in the MinC. In 2016, as part of the Boca Livre Operation, the Federal Police (PF) indicted 14 people, including businessmen, lawyers and executives from large companies, led by the Bellini Group, for theft of BRL 180 million under the Rouanet Law. The money was diverted through irregular projects.

The PF concluded that several itinerant theater projects aimed at underprivileged children and adolescents were no longer carried out, as well as books were not donated to schools or public libraries. Criminals used public money to put on shows with famous artists at private parties for large companies, institutional books and even the wedding party of one of those investigated at Praia de Jurerê Internacional, in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina. The wedding of Carolina Monteiro and Felipe Amorim was attended by a sertanejo singer.

Immorality is even more wide open due to the neglect of public power with Brazilian heritage. Burned down in 2018, the National Museum had requested, before the tragedy, through Rouanet, during the Temer administration, sponsorship for some renovation projects. Unfortunately, only initiatives related to improvements to the institution’s website and specimen exhibitions were authorized. The disrespect also extends to the churches in Salvador, Bahia, which for decades have been waiting for help from the cultural sector for reforms. One of the few that managed to release funds was the Igreja da Ordem Terceira de São Francisco, in Pelourinho (Salvador), which resorted to the media to gain visibility and be restored. One of the appeals from the artistic class to Margareth Menezes is that she also encourage sponsorships for the National Library, to restore it and avoid the same fate as the Cinematheque, which caught fire in 2021.

Public money would have been used to pay for the wedding of Carolina Monteiro and Felipe Amorim | Photo: reproduction

The faucet closes

During the Bolsonaro government, the then president said that Rouanet had been “distorted” by Lula to buy the conscience of the artistic class. Thus, when he took over the government, he made some changes, to try to “moralize the law”. Among the alterations: 1) it reduced artists’ fees by around 90% (from BRL 45 thousand per performance during the PT era to around BRL 3 thousand for actors, BRL 3.5 thousand for musicians and R$ $15k from conductors); 2) reduced the budget limit for certain segments, such as orchestras; 3) gave more authority to the Secretary of Culture to approve/veto projects that previously depended exclusively on a commission composed of 21 representatives of society elected through a public contest.

At the same time, he held the reins in approving some projects. The government always considered the number of initiatives authorized by the then Special Secretariat for Culture to be excessive. In 2019, in the first year of government, 3,700 proposals were released. The following year, the number rose slightly, to 4,600, but dropped in 2021 to 2,600. Upon leaving the Planalto Palace, in 2022, only 2,100 initiatives had received the seal of approval from Culture to raise funds. For comparison purposes, in 2018, Michel Temer’s government gave the green light to 5,400 cultural projects — not much different from what happened in PT administrations.

The future of the past

In the Lula 3 government, the Rouanet Law should once again act in the same way as the PT’s previous administrations, mainly due to the support that the president received from the artistic class, during the 2022 election. Upon taking office, Minister Margareth promised a MinC that it is “an economic powerhouse and a portfolio dedicated to artists”.

Filmmaker Josias Teófilo, known, among other works, for the film Nem Tudo Se Desfaz and the documentary O Jardim das Aflições, disagrees with the way both the previous PT governments and Bolsonaro handled the law. Supporter of Rouanet, he defends changes that can improve it. According to Teófilo, in the last four years the Executive has lacked dialogue with society and the artistic class, and there have been exaggerations in the president’s public criticism of the law. The filmmaker also disapproved of the reduction in the limit of funds for certain segments, such as orchestras, since a government that attacks projects considered “irrelevant” and of low cultural content should, then, favor works considered “more cultured”. According to the filmmaker, these measures hindered rather than helped Bolsonaro, since the management ended up discouraging an important segment to the extreme, instead of remodeling it in a more fair, transparent and less restrictive way.

For Teófilo, the reforms in the law include making it better serve the artist who is starting out, at the beginning of his career, and allowing the participation of more small companies and individuals in this process — the way it is today, only very large companies are eligible to participate in the process. In order to have their brand seen by an increasing number of viewers, these sponsors end up choosing to invest in names that are already established in the art world. “Culture needs some kind of financial incentive,” said the filmmaker. “Many countries make use of mechanisms similar to Rouanet, with the aim of also helping lesser-known names to have their projects made viable. Abroad, the value available for the artistic sector is much greater. Anyone who thinks Hollywood has no incentive is wrong.”

Regarding the ideological nature of the approved projects, Teófilo believes that the right also needs to present their projects to gain space in the cultural sector, instead of just complaining about the left. “It’s no use complaining,” he said. “We need more cultural diversity and that is why this law is so important. It is always better to have some culture than none.”