Love speech on the violence against women: A sociological analysis of "Quem matou Eloá"

Abstract

This paper consists of a sociological analysis of the documentary "Quem Matou Eloá" (Lívia Perez, Brazil, 2015), about the kidnapping and murder of 15-year-old teenager Eloá Cristina by her ex-boyfriend Lindemberg Alves, 22, in Santo André, SP, in October 2008. The kidnapping reverberated on Brazilian television, ending with an unsuccessful intervention by the Military Police and the death of Eloá. At the time, the television sustained that the crime resulted from a "love crisis" of Lindemberg after the breakup. The paper addresses connections between processes of cultural significance of violence against women and love relationships, just as the participation of the media in these processes. Pierre Sorlin's sociology of film is adopted, seeking fragments of ideology evoked in the film, while it builds a distanced critique of the case concerning the sensationalist role of television coverage at the time.