In 2019, at the 21st FestCurtasBH, some films that also came from the “Lights, Camera & Action” project of the Newton Amaral Franco Municipal School were screened. How has the experience of being part of the festival again been, six years later? The “Lights, Camera… School in Action!” project (even the project name has evolved) has completed 8 years. The group has a filmography of 50 short films in various languages, such as stop-motion animation, interviews, documentaries, and experimental films. This year we completed participation in 57 international film festivals/exhibitions. The experimental film “My Story Is My Own Tale” represented Contagem and Brazil at the Quebec Student Film Festival in Canada.
Our partnership with Cine Humberto Mauro began in 2018, when Bruno Hilário [current Executive Coordinator of the festival] and his team hosted our 1st BAECS (Aécio Eduardo Coelho Simões Library) Film Showcase – the film project was born in the school library. I had promised the children that our short films would be shown in a real cinema. And Bruno made that promise a reality with personalized tickets and everything. The following year, we had four short films selected for the 21st FestCurtasBH: “Dia de chuva” (Rainy Day), “Cabruuuummmmmm”, “Os flautistas de Contagem” (The Flautists of Contagem), and “Chapeuzinho Vermelho” (Little Red Riding Hood). It is an honor and a very emotional feeling to return to this place and be with this family that received and welcomed us with so much affection at the 27th edition of this festival, which is a reference throughout the country, now with the young filmmakers of this generation who learned so much from the groups that started the project in 2017.
What are the biggest challenges in making animated short films in a school environment? When we started the project in 2017, the intention was to prove that the school could produce films with what it had on hand: masking tape, masking tape, and more masking tape [laughs]; that is, the material resources that every school has at hand; the main raw material, which is the students’ creativity, and cell phones. It’s important to remember that what triggered the project was the initial drafting of Law No. 13.006/2014, which made the screening of nationally produced films mandatory in basic education schools. Since the cinema was used in schools to occupy idle classes without teachers, and the library was the “dumping ground” for these classes, the law really caused me discomfort, anger, and a desire for a response that came through the project. If at the beginning of the project the goal was to show that it was possible to produce films with what we had on hand, with the concern of producing content that spoke of our territory, our culture, our way of being – breaking stereotypes and going beyond canned formulas – today, as is natural, the children want to expand their productions to other areas of the city, they want to tell other stories. The challenge lies in the lack of material resources that can circulate, come and go, and be in the hands of students, both young and old. We are at a stage where the productions and perspectives of the kids are extending beyond the school walls and the limits of their own neighborhood.