The Carnations of Forgetness

the development of the Blood’less’ revolution film as case study of the collective memory unacknowledged areas

Abstract

The Portuguese Revolution of 25 April 1974, commonly known as the Carnation Revolution, was referred to in official speeches until 2024 as a bloodless revolution. The extraordinarily peaceful nature of the revolution, which remains the only military revolution to transition a dictatorship to a democratic regime, was immediately noted by the press at the time. However, blood was spilled that day, that of five people on Rua António Maria Cardoso, in a confrontation between the people and the political police. Although they were occasionally remembered in one or another piece of journalism over the following fifty years, they remained largely removed from the collective and institutional memory. This article explores how the film Blood’less’ Revolution, and the way it was developed, allowed the recovery of the memory of these people and the integration of their relevance into the institutional discourse.