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.

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.

Eleven months ago, a girl and three boys from Vila Cruzeiro had their first workshop on How To Make A Documentary. Now, almost a year later, they have finished their first own documentary feature: “CRUZEIRO”.

We’ve made a movie!

A 46 minute documentary about the lives, hopes and dreams of Diogo, Dudu, Mayra and Luis and their vision on favela life.

Ever since our wonderful editor Gustavo joined us after the crash of our hard disk, things only went up.

The editing process went much faster than I expected. And without any nasty surprises or difficulties. All credits for that go to Gustavo. I know I’m “suspeito para falar” but he did an excellent job. Gustavo is the kind of editor any director would wish for.

I want to especially mention our soundtrack.  The music for the film was specially made for us by Os Legados, a band from Vila Cruzeiro. The tracks composed by Thiago and Kadu don’t just accompany the story told. They manage to grasp the essence of CRUZEIRO in their fabulous music and lyrics.

So, the finishing touch was adding the director’s voice over and… that was it.

So now what? Pretty soon we’ll have the premiere in Vila Cruzeiro because we want to show the film to the community. And then…the world! Patricia is going back to Amsterdam mid-October for the international promotion of CRUZEIRO. Hopefully the crew will join her soon because this movie is above all the work of Diogo, Dudu, Mayra and Luis.

Without getting over-emotional, I need to thank Diogo, Mayra, Dudu and Luis from the bottom of my heart. By making a documentary about their dreams they helped me realize my own dream. So this is for them:

Meninos, a gente conseguiu! Eu estou superorgulhosa de vocês. Eu tive um sonho e vocês me ajudaram a realizá-lo. Nenhuma “obrigada” é suficiente. Vocês são demais! Eu amei trabalhar com vocês e ver vocês criar suas vidas pelo telão. Não era fácil, mas vocês fizeram. Amo! Vamos mostrar nosso trabalho ao mundo. O único caminho é para frente, né. Parabéns!

It seems like the situation in Vila Cruzeiro is getting worse by the day. Not a day goes by without gunfight between the police and the tráfico. The caveirão - the black armored police vehicle - enters almost every day. In the past when the caveirão entered, people had the time – even if just for a fraction of a minute – to seek refuge. Now, there is no escape. The governor of Rio decided that the caveirão has to fire arms while it is driving into the community without any warning to anyone who’s outside walking. It’s extremely dangerous. Amnesty International is campaigning against the use of the caveirão.

For the community the current situation is deeply sad, terrifying and frustrating. Nobody knows how long this situation will continue. It can be days and it can be months. Luis lives almost right in front of the little square in Vila Cruzeiro where the caveirão often parks for a couple of hours of combat. When that happens, there is no way he can leave his house or even walk around inside his own home for that matter. He hides behind the couch and waits for the shootings to end. Hoping that his family members and friends are safe. Almost heartbreaking is Eduardo’s three-year-old daughter: she can’t stop crying and screaming during a shoot out because she can’t stand the noise of the guns and grenades.

Here is a short clip of the caveirão entering the main road in Vila Cruzeiro seen from the Espaço Ibiss.

This is the day to day reality for the people in Vila Cruzeiro who have nothing to do with this urban war. We think it’s important to show in our documentary in what way this war effects the day to day life. It is really amazing to see that people still have the willpower and strength to keep up their spirits and try to continue their everyday routine. But this is just one of the many things we want to show in the documentary.

Besides our documentary there’s also another way to show the reality: theater.

There is a theater group in Vila Cruzeiro called Eu Não Sou Maluco which I work with as well. It is a group formed by adolescents and young adults between the age of 14 and 26. They act, sing and dance. Eu Não Sou Maluco was my ticket inside the community. When I came to Rio mid-February I still had some serious fund raising to do for the documentary so I couldn’t get started right away. Ibiss had already started the production of a new piece by Eu Não Sou Maluco, called Favela Força. The executive-director of Ibiss, Nanko van Buuren, asked me to work together with the director of Favela Força, Fabiano de Freitas. Fabiano wanted to incorporate video in his piece. They asked me to take care of this part of the production. I agreed immediately because in that way I could get to know Vila Cruzeiro, scout for young talent for my own documentary and be part of a very unique theater production. The bonus of it all is that I’m working with a fantastic group of young performers and with Fabiano who’s an inspiring, original and wonderful director.

Favela Força shows that there is much more to Vila Cruzeiro than drugs, crime and violence. It is a spectacle which mixes capoeira, samba, baile funk, hip-hop and many other favela subcultures with music and video.

I met Mayra and Diogo through Eu Não Sou Maluco, because they are both actors in this group. Luis I met through one of the dancers. Eduardo was still working for the tráfico when I came to work with Eu Não Sou Maluco and I met him a couple of months later. That was right before my fund raising was finally completed and right after the original Belgian cinematographer who was supposed to come to Rio canceled on us a few days before his camera workshops should have started.

Luckily, after a couple of nerve wrecking days, we found Don to replace him. In the end, Don turned out to be a blessing for our project. Not only is he experienced in training young people without any background in filming, but he himself is from the community as well. Don is from the neighboring Favela Da Grota. So he knows exactly what he’s talking about when we have discussions about what is safe and unsafe when filming inside the community. Furthermore, he’s always around if one of the crew members is in desperate need of a quick-fix while filming.

At the moment we’re very busy with both projects. Diogo and Mayra have loads of extra rehearsals during the weekends because Eu Não Sou Maluco goes on tour in January 2008 in the Netherlands. But from Monday to Friday they work on the documentary. In the mornings Eduardo, Diogo and I meet up at the Espaço Ibiss to edit, look at the footage they made and discuss the script. After lunch Mayra and Luis join us when they’ve finished school. Some days we don’t see each other. Could be because I can’t get into Vila Cruzeiro because of a shooting and they can’t leave their homes. Or – and this is not a bad thing - they hook up themselves to film a scene. For instance, Eduardo filmed Diogo during an audition in downtown Rio recently.

I dropped by to bring them another microphone and took a sneak peak to see what they were doing and honestly…. the director felt like a proud mom to see her two boys working together. Imagine the joy I felt when Diogo heard he passed the audition! He got accepted into a musical-ensemble outside the community. We, the whole crew, are all immensely proud of him!

Well, a bundle of work still lies ahead of us. Finishing the script is no easy task and it takes longer than expected. And the fact that the microphone store in Rio has finally admitted (take a deep sigh) that they will never ever deliver what I ordered doesn’t help either. Luckily there’s always a thing called ‘ dar um jeito’. The Brazilian way to solve whatever problem!