The Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies congratulates 2025 CLLAS Graduate Research Grant recipient Giovanni Francischelli on accepting a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the Film Studies Department at Weber State University following the completion of his PhD in Communication and Media Studies at the University of Oregon.
During his time at the University of Oregon, Francischelli built an interdisciplinary body of work examining documentary film, media systems, platform governance, and digital political culture in Brazil and Latin America. His research and filmmaking explore how documentary media shapes public understanding, identity, and political discourse across digital platforms.
As part of the 2025 CLLAS Graduate Research Grant program, Francischelli presented his project, Documentary Films and the New Brazilian Right: How Online Documentaries Spread Misinformation and Cultural Wars on YouTube, which examined how documentary filmmaking has become a strategic tool within Brazil’s contemporary right-wing media ecosystem.
His research focused on Brasil Paralelo, a Brazilian media company that operates across YouTube, streaming platforms, podcasts, books, and online courses. Francischelli analyzed how the organization uses high-production-value documentary films, advertising infrastructure, and algorithmic visibility to shape political narratives around history, feminism, race, Indigenous rights, LGBTQIA+ communities, and environmental politics.
Using digital ethnography, YouTube Data Tools, and network visualization methods, Francischelli studied how YouTube recommendation systems reinforce ideological environments online. His findings suggested that right-wing YouTube ecosystems often function as highly interconnected and self-reinforcing networks that direct users toward increasingly similar content.
“This research has reshaped how I understand the distribution of documentary films on YouTube and digital platforms,” Francischelli wrote in his CLLAS research reflection. “Documentary is not simply a form of representing reality; it is a way to change it and it currently an epistemological technology embedded in platform infrastructures and political economies.”
In addition to his academic research, Francischelli brings extensive professional experience in documentary film production. He is the co-founder of the Brazilian film company Doctela and has worked as a producer, director, and executive producer on numerous internationally recognized documentary projects. His film work has screened at festivals including Sundance, Frameline, Hot Docs, and IDFA.
At the University of Oregon, Francischelli also contributed to teaching and mentorship through courses in documentary production, visual storytelling, media history, and audio storytelling. He additionally served as a teaching and research assistant for the Latino Roots in Oregon Project alongside Professors Gabriela Martínez and Lynn Stephen.
CLLAS celebrates Giovanni Francischelli’s accomplishments and looks forward to seeing his continued contributions to film studies, documentary research, and Latin American media scholarship at Weber State University.