Maioria absoluta

"The film circulated only in cinema clubs and among the most restricted circles of people. It is twenty minutes long and treats the conditions of the lives of illiterate people from the Northeast, mainly people from Brasilia. The film shows the relationships that exist between people's actual conditions and their cultural level. This is a way of demystifing the idea that an illiterate person is not capable of discussing social issues, that he is not able to participate and to defend his own interests. This is particularly true among the peasants. There are differing relationships according to the type of work. There are people who work with sugar cane and people in agriculture, but there are also people who work in the supply industries or on the outskirts of the big cities. These people have been already excluded from production and are attracted by the better conditions of labor, health and education that the big city began to offer, especially at the end of the 1950's."
(Leon Hirszman)

"After the violent revolution of Aruanda (which was shot Paraiba), Maioria was the first film to record the voices and thoughts of the starving masses of Pernambuco. The people on the screen are a lot different from those that appear in foreign films and are very close to those of the cult of death in Vidas secas and A falecida."
(Glauber Rocha)

Estatísticas, entrevistas e informações históricas sobre a problemática do latifúndio na estrutura agrária brasileira. Depoimentos de camponeses e imagens do Palácio do Planalto e do Congresso em Brasília.