The city of Codó, in Maranhão, has just over 120 thousand inhabitants and is almost three hundred kilometers away from the capital São Luís. Codó is known for being home to famous terecô temples, but also for having one of the lowest development rates in Brazil. Codó is now also known in the British city of Leeds, which is home to a Unicamp partner university. The university coordinates a project that generated the documentary “A little bit of everything, perhaps”, directed and written by Gilberto Alexandre Sobrinho, professor at the Institute of Arts (IA) linked to the postgraduate program in Multimedia.
The short film has already made its international debut at the Leeds International Film Festival. This Friday, at the Museum of Image and Sound (MIS) in Campinas, it will be presented for the first time in Brazil. With images from a cell phone and the support of a cameraman in the city, Sobrinho and his team made a “film-diary” that tells how the project instructors got closer to five girls from the city, the workshops they held in Codó and the impacts of this experience for everyone.
The film is part of the international research project Voicing Hidden Histories, funded by the AHRC (UK Arts and Humanities Research Council). At the University of Leeds, the project is linked to the Center for World Cinema and Digital Cultures.
According to Sobrinho, the idea of the project is to rethink the concept of nation in the context of Brics, from the point of view of peripheral or marginalized communities, and using audiovisual narrative as a way of strengthening communities. The professor, who is already the author of a trilogy about the Afro-Brazilian legacy, especially in Campinas (see here), was invited to the project by professor Stephanie Dennison from the British university. She has already been to Unicamp as a visiting professor.
Watch the project video (in English):
Voicing Hidden Histories: Participatory Filmmaking, Advocacy and International Development from Paul Cooke on Vimeo.
Codó was chosen because it occupies one of the worst positions in the HDI (Human Development Index), but, at the same time, the city is in a very culturally rich state. There is the paradox of large centers, such as São Luis, which generated great intellectuals, but also a very rich Afro-Brazilian and Amerindian culture, although stigmatized. There are the hidden stories that the project aims to show, says Sobrinho. “How can a territory with high levels of social inequality be so culturally rich and how do people there live with these dilemmas, that was one of our questions.”
Teens
The five teenagers who appear in the documentary help the team of directors to think about the questions raised, but they also raise other questions, mainly in relation to a new feminism and its impacts on the women of Codó. The non-governmental organization Plan-International works on the issue of gender in the city of Maranhão and was also a partner with Unicamp in making the documentary.
“There was a group of girls who had done leadership work in the city and they agreed to participate in the project”, highlighted Sobrinho. The diary film presents the meetings, workshops and discussions that the group held on two two-week trips. “When we arrived in the city we didn’t know the place and we didn’t want to impose anything, so we needed to build something collectively so that history had an impact on our lives.”
SERVICE
"A little bit of everything, maybe"
Exhibition on 15/12/2017
19h30
MIS Campinas
Rua Regente Feijó, 859 - Center
