Favela documentary update

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!