Featured Event | Short Film Screening: [Emptiness crossing us] Directed by Fernando Moreira, Harvard Anthropology Fellow

All are invited to attend a screening of short film [Emptiness crossing us] directed by Fernando Moreira (Harvard Fellow in Anthropology) this Thursday, November 9th, at 3:00 pm in Tozzer rm. 203. This event is co-sponsored by

Harvard Anthropology and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University (DRCLAS).

 

 

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psl3hxYIyS8

 

 

Director's Info:

 

Fernando Moreira is a journalist. He earned his master's degree in Semiotics / Linguistics from USP (Universidade de São Paulo). Currently, Fernando is a researcher at Harvard University (fellow in the Anthropology department - CAPES / PrInt scholar) and a PhD candidate in Semiotics / Linguistics at the Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Between 2001 and 2018 he worked as a reporter, TV news anchor and editor for mainstream Brazilian news outlets. One of the distinguished coverages he has done so far was the Samarco / Vale / BHP Billiton mining dam collapse in Mariana (MG, Brazil) in 2015. [Emptiness crossing us] is the first film by Fernando Moreira.

 

 

About The Film:

 

[Emptiness crossing us]

 

Short doc film, 23 min, Brazil, 2021. Director: Fernando Moreira.

 

 

Directed, produced and screenplay by: Fernando Moreira. Editing and post-production: Sônia Cristina. Music: Gustavo Bonin. Drums: Alex Buck. Viola: Gabriel Marin. Camera: Gabriela Di Bella and Fernando Moreira. Colorist: Caio Antônio. Logistical support in the first stage of the project: Nu Olhar.

 

 

 

Synopsis:

 

Crossed by greed, two hundred and seventy-two people were buried in toxic mud from the Vale mining company in Brumadinho (MG), Brazil in 2019. The emptiness that now crosses those who try to carry on will never be filled. This tribute film is dedicated to the victims of the irresponsible mining tragedy that continues to take its toll with blood and devastation.

 

In January 2019, two hundred and seventy-two people were killed by the Vale Mining Company dam collapse in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The tragedy occurred three years and two months after another rupture that left nineteen dead in Mariana, Minas Gerais. This other dam was operated by Samarco, which was controlled by mining company Vale, together with Britain's BHP Billiton. Vale claims that it is assisting the families, although it has not yet compensated all of them.

 

The incessant noise of the helicopters, a sound that erupted over Brumadinho every day, in search of one more victim covered in mud, was chosen to set our film. This attractor moves the affections and our sensitive perception, it dictates the sad symphony of farewell that has been established in Brumadinho. In the sequence, we hear a list of names being read. The voice is that of Pedro Aihara, from the military rescue team. Evanir, who lives in the region and was looking for information from his wife, a Vale mining company employee, was recording the sound on his cell phone. After reading the 182 names on the list, the officer announces: those were the people found alive at the mine entrance. Evanir decided, then, to send a voice message to her children: "Savinho, Samuel, Mom's name is not among those who are safe yet. Let us pray, in the name of Jesus. The scene of Evanir, in the film, with a distant look from the balcony of the house that he built with his wife and where he lives with the couple's two children, denotes the presentiment of absence that has not yet completely occurred in his resolutions. At some moments, he seemed anesthetized. It is with him that our film begins. It is with him that it ends, in a confluence of complex poles, translating, in the documentary, a cycle that has not closed in his life. Her wife is among those that until today, two years after the tragedy, have not been located.

 

This film was born as a tribute to the victims of the Vale mining tragedy. The emptiness that crosses those who remain will never be filled. It is also born from the restlessness of its director, a journalist who worked in the coverage of the 2015 dam collapse in Mariana, and was incredulous knowing of a new irresponsible event that prioritized profit over lives and the environment. Upon learning of yet another event of this magnitude, he decided to travel from São Paulo to Brumadinho to record the story and not let the theme fall into oblivion. Our option is for the human focus, since the journalistic and informative focus has been issued and broadcasted in the news. The ore sludge has been burying lives for many decades. Inertia and the trivialization of the absurd go hand in hand with political inaction. Trying to translate the perennial emptiness and absence in the lives, marked or exterminated by the ore tailings, into a more lasting format, as the documentary intends to be, is an act of resistance.

 

This work has no funding of any kind, and all cost has been entirely covered up to this point by its director. The persistence in broadcasting this film "screams" unsettling. All the hundreds of silenced voices will echo. Perhaps we can help to propagate them, restoring to them part of what has been lost: the memory of who they once were here, and the connections they made with their beloved ones that know try to carry on.

 

 

 

Festivals:

 

  • 25ª Mostra de Cinema de Tiradentes (Tiradentes, Minas Gerais, Brazil). 2021.
  • 8° Festival Velho Chico de Cinema Ambiental (Circuito Penedo de Cinema) - Alagoas, Brazil, 2021. Best film - Popular Jury.
  • 15º Mostra CineBH - 2021 (Brazil)
  • 10º Festival Internacional de Cine Documental de Buenos Aires - FIDBA (2021-2022 - Argentina).
  • 9th Mumbai Indian Cine Film Festival (Índia, 2021). Official jury award: best screenplay.
  • 9th Docs Without Borders (USA) - 2022. “Excellence Award”.
  • 3º Festival Internacional de Cine de Derechos Humanos Miradas Diversas - Venezuela (2021).
  • IV FestUni – Festival de Cinema Universitário – Universidade de Brasília (UnB) – (2021). Award: best film - popular jury.
  • 22º FICA – Festival Internacional de Cinema e Vídeo Ambiental (Goiás – 2021).
  • Festival Cine MIS (MIS – Museu da Imagem e do Som) 2021.
  • 20º Festival Primeiro Plano (Brazil, 2021). - Award: best film - popular jury.
  • 2ª Mostra Internacional Audiovisual [em]curtas (Brazil, 2021). 3 awards (best film, best environmental film, best screenplay) popular jury.
  • Lift-Off Global Network (UK, 2021).
  • 5th International Folklore Film Festival. (India, 2022).
  • 23rd Madurai International Documentary and Short Film Festival (India, 2021).
  • Capri Hollywood International Film Festival (Italy, 2021).
  • Angaelica Festival (USA, 2021/2022).
  • Mostra Apneia de Artes Integradas (Brazil, 2022).
  • 21st Common Good Film Festival (USA, 2022).
  • 7º Festival Internacional de Cine de Bayamón (Puerto Rico, 2022).
  • 2º FIC Rio – Festival Internacional de Curtas do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro 2022)
  • 15º Curta Taquary (Brazil, 2022) – Best screenplay and best editing awards- official jury.
  • 4th Meihodo International Youth Visual Festival (USA, 2022)
  • ECOS: mostra de cinema Ambiental (Brazil, 2022)
  • 2nd DOCAWARDS - International Documentary Film Awards (Netherlands, 2022). Awards: “Best documentary about human right” and “Best South American documentary”.
  • 70th Columbus International Film & Animation Festival (USA, 2022).
  • Thessaloniki Free Short Festival (Greek, 2022) - Honorable Mention - official jury.
  • II El Cine Suma Paz - Festival Internacional de Cine Protección de medio ambiente y cultura de paz (Colômbia - 2022).
  • 8º Cine.Ema - Festival de Cinema Ambiental do Espírito Santo (Brazil, 2022).
  • 50º Festival de Cinema de Gramado (V Mostra de filmes Universitários) - (Brazil, 2022).
  • 9 edizione Life After Oil International Film Festival (Sardegna - Italy, 2022).
  • X Edição Curta o Gênero (Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil).
  • One Earth Awards (Bangalore, India, 2022)
  • 11ª Mostra Ecofalante de Cinema (São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Piracicaba, Brasil, 2022).
  • The All Living Thing Environmental Film Festival (India, 2022).
  • Planeta DOC (Brazil, 2022)
  • Festival de Cinema de Alter do Chão (Brazil, 2022).
  • 9º FIC NOVA - Cine de la No-violencia activa (Espanha, 2022)
  • SUNCINE - environmental film festival (Espanha, 2022).
  • 24fps International Film Festival (Abilene, Texas, USA, 2022).
  • Tokyo Lift-Off Film Festival (Japão, 2022).

 

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