First came the film exhibitions, then the documentaries, among other projects, and finally the building of a film collection dedicated to recovering and disseminating the history of Brazilian cinema. Since 2001, with the exhibition (and accompanying book-catalog) Cinema Marginal and Its Frontiers, Heco Produções has specialized in neglected aspects of Brazilian cinema. Its 25-year trajectory has made it possible to engage with filmmakers, producers, and other professionals, to understand their problems and needs, including the difficulty of locating and producing film prints, and to learn how to give visibility to this vast body of work. Today, Heco holds the rights to 64 films produced between the 1950s and the 2000s. About a third of the collection already has 2K and/or 4K digital copies, and the rest is heading the same way.

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The focus on the Boca do Lixo is clear, a recurring thread since the retrospectives of A. P. Galante, José Mojica Marins, and Ozualdo R. Candeias, the documentaries Ozualdo Candeias and Cinema (2013) and The Good Cinema (2021), and the digitization and dissemination of the magazine Cinema em Close-Up (1975–1977). This São Paulo film hub, centered on Rua do Triunfo, was responsible for hundreds of feature films between 1957 and 1992, and its filmography continues to be rediscovered. The centerpiece is the (nearly) complete collection of Candeias's work, including short, medium-length, and feature films, on film and on video. It ranges from his first ventures into directing, such as the documentary Tambaú (1955) and the institutional film Female Police (1960), to his last, The Vigilant (1992) and Brazilian Cinematheque (1993), made during the dismantling of Brazilian cinema under the Collor government. Candeias became known for an inventive, auteurist aesthetic and a keen eye for marginalized figures. In the late 1960s, he broke with the conventions of Brazilian cinema in works such as The Margin (1967), My Name Is... Tonho (1969), The Inheritance (1971), Zézero (1974), and Theoption or The Roses of the Road (1981). A regular presence in the Boca from 1967 onward, Candeias followed and documented all of the area's transformations in short films such as Bocadolixocinema (1976) and in a vast collection of photographs, now part of the Heco Produções Archives.

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Historiographically, Candeias stands as a central name in so-called Cinema Marginal, which is also represented in the Collection by short films by Rogério Sganzerla (B2, 2001) and Jairo Ferreira (Neither Truth Nor Lie, 1975). The Boca do Lixo, crucial to this production, nonetheless became better known for the extensive popular and erotic output it generated in the 1970s and 1980s. Heco holds films by Alfredo Sternheim, Antonio Meliande, Carlos Reichenbach, Jean Garrett, John Doo, José Mojica Marins, and Ody Fraga, all important filmmakers of that period, produced for the most part by Augusto de Cervantes and Roberto Galante.

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Having begun their careers in the 1960s, Sternheim, Meliande, Doo, and Fraga are represented by later works made in the 1980s. Known for his melodramas, critic, researcher, and filmmaker Alfredo Sternheim is represented by the thriller Tension and Desire (1983). Antonio Meliande, in turn, a notable cinematographer whose credits include several films by Walter Hugo Khouri, moved into directing in the mid-1970s. Heco holds his rare Sexual Anarchy (1982) and Sluts for Pleasure (1983). Of the three films by Chinese director and actor John Doo, a talented exponent of Brazilian horror, the highlight is the melodrama The Voluptuousness of a Woman (1984), made at a time when explicit sex had already taken over popular movie theaters. Of these four directors, Ody Fraga, a prolific screenwriter and director, is the most represented, with seven features. Among them are the free-spirited and provocative Venus' Palace (1980), perhaps his best film, and the transgressive and hilarious Sit on Mine and I Will Enter Yours (1986), one of the most iconic Brazilian hardcore films.

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Both Reichenbach and Garrett are represented by some of their most important works. Frequent collaborators, the two filmmakers stood out for their visual refinement and their complex portrayal of female sexuality at a time that was still rather conservative. Carlos Reichenbach's ability to understand each historical moment allowed him to move between Cinema Marginal, erotic production, and state-funded cinema without losing his auteurist character. The Zurlini-esque melodrama The Forbidden Paradise (1981) and the anarchic comedy The Empire of Desire (1980) are examples of this. Garrett, for his part, remained confined to Boca cinema, but mastered its conventions like few others, in strikingly contemporary films such as the horror film Excitation (1977) and the melodrama Woman, Woman (1979), both with meticulous cinematography by Reichenbach.

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José Mojica Marins, best known for his character Zé do Caixão (Coffin Joe) and his horror films, was a versatile filmmaker who worked across a range of genres over a career spanning more than 50 years. The Heco Produções Archives highlights some of these works, such as the youth musical melodrama My Destiny in Your Hands (1963), made while he was still seeking his place, and two films made within the machinery of the Boca do Lixo: the excellent western D'Gajão Kills to Avenge (1972) and the erotic comedy with supernatural overtones How to Console Widows (1976).

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More recently, Heco acquired part of the Brazilian filmography of Argentine filmmaker Carlos Hugo Christensen, a central figure in Latin American cinema and the author of crucial works of both Argentine and Brazilian cinema. He came to Brazil in the mid-1950s to make co-productions with the Maristela studio in São Paulo, but soon settled in Rio de Janeiro. He is the only director in the Archives with no direct connection to the Boca do Lixo, but a quick look at his films makes Heco's interest clear: beyond the quality of his work, Christensen moved skillfully across a range of genres and never lost sight of a broad audience. Among the eleven films acquired from producer and assistant director Francisco Marques are the comedy My Loves in Rio (1958), the melodramas Journey to the Breasts of Duília (1964) and The Intruder (1979), the fantasy film The Boy and the Wind (1967), and the crime films Angels and Demons (1970) and The Transparent Death (1979). The Archives also include the horror films Enigma for Demons (1975) and The Woman of Desire (1977), currently being restored in 4K.

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The creation of the Heco Produções Archives thus makes it possible to recover and circulate an important, historic share of Brazil's vast film output. The challenge now is to master all of these works in the highest digital quality and to save many others from oblivion.