For almost six months, Tiago Ferraro, a former student of the Documentary course at the Academia Internacional de Cinema, and journalist Fernanda Kiehl traveled the basin of the São Francisco River, from its source, in Minas Gerais, to its mouth, between Alagoas and Sergipe. The adventure turned into a documentary Faces of Velho Chico, which premieres tomorrow (02/28) at Cinesesc on Rua Augusta, at 8:30 pm. Entry is free.
The film tells the story of eight characters who live in communities on the banks of the São Francisco: a fisherwoman from the mouth of the river; an indigenous musician; a quilombola leadership; a great producer of grapes from Petrolina; the only steamboat pilot in Brazil; a rural poet; a hotel owner at the source; and a popular caatinga artist.
“In order to create an approximation with our characters, we try to live like them. So, we lived for 3 weeks in a quilombo. We lived for 3 weeks in an indigenous village. And we lived for more than a month in a village of 300 inhabitants, in the backlands of Alagoas, on the banks of the river. Not to mention the countless nights sleeping in the car, a Honda Fit, when we lowered the seats and put a mattress in the back”, said Tiago.
The director, who studied at AIC in the first half of 2019, spoke about the importance of the documentary course for making his films.
“It was an incredible experience to study at AIC, it helped me a lot to understand all the stages that the film goes through. This was fundamental to my development as a documentary filmmaker.”
After traveling 2,877 kilometers by car in search of the stories and realities of a people as profound as they are forgotten, the couple’s next project is to finish a film about an unlikely Brazilian city in Iran, called Abadan.
“It’s a doc with a comic content about a true city that claims to be Brazilian, in Iran. Over there, everything is painted green and yellow, the kebabs are called Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, and many restaurants even have two clocks, one with Brazilian time and one with Iran time”, explained Ferraro.
SERVICE:
Faces of Velho Chico
02/28/2023 at 8:30 pm
No CineSesc
Rua Augusta, 2075
Sao Paulo-SP