In Brazil, government programs have been established to improve low rates of adult literacy. Students who live in the rural communities of Rio de Janeiro start to look at the world differently thanks to these classes, discovering new meaning in life while learning how to read and write.

Eunice Gutman’s democratic feminist filmmaking started in conversation with an adult education initiative that worked to empower thousands of citizens through words. Focusing her lens on a few participants, the documentarian captures an image of a country in the midst of profound social change.