Cinema and education #2 — Law 13.006, more than ten years on: what it requires and how to comply
Second post in Pupilo’s Cinema and Education series. In the first one, we talked about why it is worth bringing cinema to school. Now, the Brazilian law that made it mandatory.
Many people who work in Brazilian schools have never heard of it. Others have, but are not quite sure what it requires. Since June 2014, Brazil’s National Education Guidelines and Framework Law, known as LDB, has had a paragraph about Brazilian cinema. More than ten years later, it is worth taking a careful look at it.
What the law says
Law No. 13.006, of June 26, 2014, added paragraph 8 to article 26 of the LDB (Law No. 9.394, of 1996). The text is short. In our translation:
“The screening of nationally produced films shall be a complementary curricular component integrated into the school’s pedagogical plan, and its screening shall be mandatory for at least two hours per month.” (BRASIL, 2014)
It is worth reading slowly, because each part says something:
“Nationally produced films”. The law is about Brazilian cinema. Features, shorts, documentaries, animation, fiction. It does not say which ones.
“Complementary curricular component”. It is not a new subject with its own teacher. It is something that complements the curriculum.
“Integrated into the school’s pedagogical plan”. In other words, it should be part of the school’s political-pedagogical project (PPP), planned together with everything else, not floating loose in the calendar.
“At least two hours per month”. It is a floor, not a ceiling. And it applies to all basic education schools, from early childhood education to high school.
Where it came from
The law started as a bill by Senator Cristovam Buarque, PL 185/08 (FRESQUET; MIGLIORIN, 2015, p. 5). In his justification, the senator talked about developing a taste for cinema and critical thinking. In an interview shown in 2012 at the Rede Kino forum, during the Ouro Preto Film Festival (CineOP), he explained that he wanted to bring joy and culture to school, and the “humanist vision” that, in his view, comes through the arts (FRESQUET; MIGLIORIN, 2015, p. 6).
But, as Adriana Fresquet (UFRJ) and Cezar Migliorin (UFF) point out, the text does not define which films will be screened, how they will be chosen, or who will pay for them and for the equipment (FRESQUET; MIGLIORIN, 2015, p. 6). In 2015, CineOP and Universo Produção published a whole book of reflections and proposals by researchers, teachers and film club organizers, precisely to help think about how the law should be regulated (FRESQUET, 2015, p. 2).
The questions the law leaves open
Fresquet and Migliorin open the book with a list of questions that are still relevant: which films? What kinds of screening? How will teachers and the community get involved? Are there films with accessibility features for blind and deaf students? Who pays for it all? (FRESQUET; MIGLIORIN, 2015, p. 4).
They also warn of two risks. The first is assuming that any film is good just because it is a film: cinema is not good in principle, which is why the choice matters (FRESQUET; MIGLIORIN, 2015, p. 10-11). The second is turning school into a shop window to train future cinema consumers (FRESQUET; MIGLIORIN, 2015, p. 14).
Professor Solange Straube Stecz, from the State University of Paraná, adds another point: implementing the law well depends on ongoing teacher training and on each school’s actual conditions, from facilities to equipment (STECZ, 2015, p. 143). She mentions a policy that was missed: Programadora Brasil, which distributed Brazilian films to screening venues around the country and was discontinued (STECZ, 2015, p. 145-146).
How to comply in practice, without suffering
The law does not come with a step-by-step guide. What follows are our suggestions, based on what researchers discuss and on what we see in the schools we visit with Cineclube Pupilo and the Chica Pelega Film Festival.
1. Put it in the school plan. Write down in the school’s project how Brazilian cinema will come in: in which classes, how often, who organizes it. What is on paper is more likely to happen.
2. Two hours don’t have to be one feature film. They can be four half-hour shorts over the month, or one feature screening with a conversation. Short films fit into a single lesson and let you see more films from more places.
3. Choose carefully. Monica Fantin, from UFSC, suggests questions for choosing films for children along five lines: ethical, aesthetic, cognitive, affective and linguistic. For example: does the film have gratuitous shocking scenes, or are they necessary to the story? What emotions does it provoke? Is the language suitable for the class? (FANTIN, 2015, p. 182-183).
4. Think about accessibility. Subtitles, audio description, films without dialogue. Fresquet and Migliorin remind us that getting the film to the school with full accessibility is only the beginning of the work (FRESQUET; MIGLIORIN, 2015, p. 10-11).
5. The screening doesn’t end with the credits. Save time for conversation. That is what turns a screening into an experience.
6. Start a film club. A group of students and teachers who choose, present and discuss films helps take the law off paper and gives it the school’s own face.
7. Invite filmmakers. Stecz defends partnerships between teachers and filmmakers, each in their own role: the filmmaker does not become an educator, nor the teacher a filmmaker, but together they go further (STECZ, 2015, p. 146-147).
8. Count films from your region and films made by students. Shorts by local filmmakers and films made by children and teenagers in workshops are Brazilian productions too.
A video for your next staff meeting
The video below, about cinema and education, is part of Circuito Chica Pelega, a Pupilo project funded by the Santa Catarina Film Award (Special Edition, Paulo Gustavo Law/2023). It is in Portuguese and can be a good conversation starter with your school team.
Where to find the films
One of the biggest obstacles to complying with the law is finding good Brazilian films that are cleared for schools and easy to screen. That is why we created Pupilo Play: a free collection for educators, with films chosen by our curators, BNCC curriculum notes and lesson plans. In the fifth post of this series, we show step by step how to put together a screening with it.
In this series
- #1 Why cinema at school
- #2 Law 13.006, more than ten years on (this post)
- #3 Cinema as art at school
- #4 When the class makes the film: what we learned from our workshops
- #5 How to bring a film into class with Pupilo Play
References
- BRASIL. Lei nº 13.006, de 26 de junho de 2014. Adds paragraph 8 to article 26 of Law No. 9.394 of December 20, 1996. Available at: planalto.gov.br.
- FANTIN, Monica. Cinema e infância na escola: algumas questões sobre a escolha dos filmes para crianças. In: FRESQUET, Adriana (ed.). Cinema e educação: a Lei 13.006 – reflexões, perspectivas e propostas. Ouro Preto: Universo Produção, 2015.
- FRESQUET, Adriana (ed.). Cinema e educação: a Lei 13.006 – reflexões, perspectivas e propostas. Ouro Preto: Universo Produção, 2015.
- FRESQUET, Adriana; MIGLIORIN, Cezar. Da obrigatoriedade do cinema na escola, notas para uma reflexão sobre a Lei 13.006/14. In: FRESQUET, Adriana (ed.). Cinema e educação: a Lei 13.006 – reflexões, perspectivas e propostas. Ouro Preto: Universo Produção, 2015.
- STECZ, Solange Straube. Cinema na escola: muitos desafios no horizonte. In: FRESQUET, Adriana (ed.). Cinema e educação: a Lei 13.006 – reflexões, perspectivas e propostas. Ouro Preto: Universo Produção, 2015.
- Circuito Chica Pelega – cinema e educação. Pupilo YouTube channel, 2025.
