“Elizabeth”: A Powerful Documentary on a Peasant Leader’s Resistance
My child, do you know what agrarian reform is? It’s land—giving land to rural workers so they can work it.”
This is the opening line of Elizabeth (2023), a short documentary produced by the Brazilian observatory De Olho Nos Ruralistas (Agribusiness Watch). The film tells the story of the historic peasant activist Elizabeth Teixeira, who turned 100 in February 2025.
Elizabeth has been screened at film festivals and grassroots events, and it won Best Film at Brazil’s 7th National Environmental Film Festival. In celebration of her centenary, the documentary is now available on YouTube. Though the film is in Portuguese, automatic subtitles in other languages are available. The film was directed by Alceu Luís Castilho, Luís Indriunas, and Vanessa Nicolav. Vanessa and Indriunas interviewed Elizabeth in João Pessoa when she was 98 years old.
“The woman who had to change her name during the dictatorship—two years after the assassination of her husband, João Pedro Teixeira—became the central figure in the 1984 documentary Twenty Years Later (Cabra Marcado Para Morrer) by Eduardo Coutinho. Yet, she is still far from receiving the recognition she deserves as a peasant leader. The frequency with which she speaks about agrarian reform stands in stark contrast to how little the topic is discussed in Brazil today.” De Olho Nos Ruralistas notes
Her lifelong struggle for land reform reflects the ongoing challenges faced by rural workers.
One of the most tragic episodes in this fight occurred in 1996, when 21 peasants were killed in the state of Pará during what came to be known as the Eldorado do Carajás Massacre. In their honor, La Via Campesina designated April 17 as the International Day of Peasant Struggles—a day to remember past and present resistance and to mobilize globally for agrarian reform and food sovereignty.