We are delighted to hear that Cruzeiro has been selected for the World Film Festival of Bangkok, 6 - 15 November 2009.
More than 80 international films are screened at the festival each year, featuring works from the European Union Film Festival, Latin America, Asia and Southeast Asia and included are short films, experimental films, documentaries and animation productions. You can stay updated on the festival’s website.
Bus Lovers (Busólogos) | 12 minutes
A profile of bus lovers in Sao Paulo.
Cruzeiro | 46 minutes
An insight into four young people living in Vila Cruzeiro, one of the most violent slum areas in Rio de Janeiro.
Book tickets online
Or telephone the Ticket Desk on +44 (0)20 7323 8181
Or book tickets in person at the Ticket Desk, open daily 10.00 to 16.45
The IBWFF is founded by Adrienne Anderson who was interviewed by San Francisco Chronicle journalist Peter Hartlaub in regards to her film festival. Read it here: SF Chronicle.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Your Story: growing up in the favelas
Seventeen-year-old Mayra Avellar was awarded the International Children’s Peace Price for organising a protest against the violence in her home community, a favela called Vila Cruzeiro in Rio de Janeiro.
She wants to highlight how the frequent shoot-outs between police and drug traffickers affect the children in her community, who can’t go to school or play outside when these wars are going on.
Mayra has been working with the BBC’s citizen journalism project, Your Story, to report on life in a place where outside journalists have been threatened and even killed.
Listen to Mayra’s BBC report
Our world premiere in London was wonderful! We would like to extend our sincere thanks to everyone from the LIDF team for making our premiere so succesful. Many thanks in particular to Patrick and Katarina for their support for Cruzeiro. We - that is Noucky and me - were overwhelmed by the warm welcome we received at our first public screening at the British Museum. What a fabulous venue! We were very happy that the screening was a success and hope to see you all again soon in August!
After a short stop in the Netherlands, Patricia went to Doha, Qatar, for the Al Jazeera International Documentary Film Festival. A huge festival with 100 documentary films shown at the Doha Sheraton Convention Center.
Very proud of our poster at the entrance:
Doha was a wonderful experience where we met tons of fantastic filmmakers from all over the world. It was truly inspirational.
On Wednesday, April 28th we’ll have a screening and discussion with Mayra, Dudu, Diogo and Luis at the Cinema Nosso theater at 4PM.
Hope to see you there!
Quatro jovens revelam uma Vila Cruzeiro diferente
No dia 28 de abril (terça-feira), às 16h, o Espaço Cinema Nosso oferece mais uma edição da Caleidoscópio, com a exibição do documentário “Cruzeiro”, de Patricia Maresch, seguida de debate com a diretora e os protagonistas. A entrada é gratuita.
Em “Cruzeiro”, a cineasta holandesa Patricia Maresch retrata a realidade da comunidade de Vila Cruzeiro (subúrbio do Rio de Janeiro) a partir do olhar de quatro jovens, Mayra Avellar, Eduardo Queiroz, Luiz Senun e Diogo Nascimento. Eles mostram a comunidade e falam sobre suas perspectivas e ambições de vida, revelando uma Vila Cruzeiro diferente daquela que é estampada nas páginas dos jornais.
Após a exibição, conversam com a plateia a diretora e os protagonistas do filme. Além de conduzirem o documentário, os quatro também dividiram as funções de operador de câmera, entrevistador e roteirista. No ano passado, Mayra Avellar recebeu o Prêmio Infantil da Paz, em Haia (Holanda), das mãos de Desmond Tutu, bispo sul-africano que ganhou o Prêmio Nobel da Paz em 1984.
O documentário acaba de entrar em circuito mundial, com exibições no The London International Documentary Festival, na Inglaterra, e no 5º Aljazeera Internacional Documentary Film Festival, em Doha (Qatar). Confira o site oficial do filme: www.faveladocumentary.com.
CaleidoscópioFilme “Cruzeiro” + debate
Local: Espaço Cinema Nosso (Rua do Rezende, 80 – Lapa)
Data: 28 de abril (terça-feira)
Horário: 16h
Entrada gratuita
Mais informações: (00-XX-21) 2505-3300
Site: www.cinemanosso.org.br
After our World Premiere in London at the LIDF on April 4, we’ll travel to Qatar for the 5th Aljazeera International Documentary Film Festival.
The festival is held in Qatar’s capital Doha from 13-16 April 2009.
At the end of the month, we’ll have a screening in our hometown Rio de Janeiro. Our friends from Cinema Nosso have invited us for an afternoon-screening within their Caleidoscópio-programme. Final details will follow soon.
CC d.sign once again designed a small jewel for Cruzeiro. We’re especially grateful to Noucky Koole and our loyal sponsor Puente from Antwerpen, Wendy Donckers in particular. You’re fabulous!
CRUZEIRO has been selected by the London International Documentary Film Festival, LIDF 2009. The documentary will be screened Saturday, 4 April, at the closing all-day-event at the British Museum: a feast of films across three screens. At 3PM Cruzeiro has its world premiere at the Sackler Rooms, an amazing location!
We wish we could be there too! But most of all we hope that the people in London who’ll attend our screening will enjoy our work and that it will be well received by the audience.
This is what it says on the LIDF website:
“The real ‘City of God’. Vila Cruzeiro is one of the most violent slum areas in Rio de Janeiro, at times a no-go area for the police where the drug gangs rule.
But the favela does have its own unique beauty, and in this simply shot but hugely affecting documentary four young people show us their lives and speak about their dreams.
22 year-old Diogo wants to be an actor; 16 year-old Mayra dreams of being a history student; 17 year-old Luis longs to be a ballet dancer; while Dudu, 25, is a father of two, an ex-child-soldier for one of the drug-trafficking commandos.
Mayra Avellar, who features in this film and helped create it, has recently been awarded the 4th International Children’s Peace Prize for her courageous work attempting to counter the violence of Vila Cruzeiro and stand up for the rights of children and young people.”
Cruzeiro foi selecionado para o London International Documentary Film Festival 2009. O filme terá uma exibição durante o festival e será a estréia mundial: Sábado, 4 abril 2009, 15 horas. O local é o British Museum.
Informações sobre Cruzeiro no festival acessem: http://www.lidf.co.uk/lidf09/films/cruzeiro/
Mayra has been awarded an extraordinary prize. On December 4th Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu handed over the fourth International Children’s Peace Prize to Mayra at a ceremony held in the Ridderzaal in The Hague, The Netherlands.
This is what the jury said: “Mayra Avellar is awarded the prize for her courageous and successful battle against extreme violence in the favela’s of Rio de Janeiro, which each year costs thousands of children their lives. Mayra grew up in one of the most violent favela’s in Rio, in the midst of a civil war between the drugs cartels and between the cartels and the police. The violence rose to such extreme levels that, when Mayra was eleven years old, the neighbourhood was cut off and became virtually inaccessible to medical and teaching staff. As a result, schools and clinics were closed. At 15 years old, Mayra mobilised hundreds of children and youths to take part in a protest march, demanding that the police cease their patrols during school hours. That march was certainly not without its risks. The police agreed to her demands and since then many children have been able to return to school. However, Mayra’s fight goes on, as life in the favela’s remains extremely dangerous and the local facilities are poor. Last year she organised another march, this time appealing to everybody in the favela and elsewhere to stand up for the fundamental rights of slum dwellers. Or, in her own words: “Everybody has a part to play in improving human rights, in particular the rights of children as the future generation. We can and must stand up for these children, whose rights are being violated and whose lives are at risk.”
The International Children’s Peace Prize is handed out annually to a child who demonstrates exceptional dedication to children’s rights. It was awarded for the first time in 2005, during a world summit of Nobel Peace Prize winners chaired by Mikhail Gorbachev, and was unanimously lauded by the Nobel Prize winners as a new instrument in the worldwide struggle to improve children’s rights. Last year’s winner was Thandiwe Chama from Zambia.
The Children’s Peace Prize includes prize money of EUR 100,000. The Dutch foundation KidsRights, the founder of the prize, will invest the prize money in specific projects that are closely related to Mayra’s struggle for peace in Vila Cruzeiro.
Who could imagine that a girl from Vila Cruzeiro would ever win such a prestigious prize. Well, believe it!
As you can imagine we’re very very proud of Mayra. This is not just her prize, this price is for all young girls and boys from the favelas of Rio trying to get ahead and demanding a dignified life. It’s for the struggle against violence and against injustice. It’s in favour of education for all children and foremost, for the fight for peace. This is the message that Mayra had for all of us who were present during the ceremony in The Hague.
Believe this as well: everything is possible if you believe in it. This is what Mayra does. And it’s also what her friends Diogo, Dudu and Luis from our documentary Cruzeiro do. This is what the entire cast and crew from Favela Força does. All these young people fight in the hope that one day they’ll no longer have to see someone die from a stray bullet. And no matter what others might say: people from the favela have the same rights as any other person. This fight is what keeps Mayra and her friends from Vila Cruzeiro going. I’m proud that I’m allowed to fight on their side.
