2003

Thursday, December 4th

8:30pm

Voices From the Edge

After successful screenings in Rio de Janeiro, SÌøåÀå_o Paulo, and New
York, Brazilian filmmakers Daniela Broitman and Fernando Salis will be
in the Bay Area to present and discuss their new documentary film, Voices
From the Edge: The Favela Goes to the World Social Forum. The film has
been selected by prestigious international festivals: Havana Film Festival
(Cuba), Festival dei Popoli (Italy) and African Diaspora Film Festival
(NYC).

The 70-minute documentary film portrays the struggle of 23 community
leaders from Rio de Janeiro slums to participate in the III World Social
Forum, in early 2003 in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The WSF is the most important
international event organized by civil society to discuss social justice
ÌøåÀå_ the antithetic equivalent of the World Economic Forum that takes
place in Davos, Switzerland, every year. The community leaders want their
work to achieve visibility. They want their voices to be heard. Through
their perspective, the film narrates the WSF and reveals the challenges
that corporate-driven globalization present not only to Rio de Janeiro
but to the world political agenda.

Among other policymakers, intellectuals, and social activists, BrazilÌøåÀå_s
President Luiz InÌøåÀå_cio Lula da Silva, linguist Noam Chomsky, Rio
de JaneiroÌøåÀå_s Mayor Cesar Maia, photographer SebastiÌøåÀå_o Salgado,
Minister Benedita da Silva, filmmaker Fernando Solanas, and VenezuelaÌøåÀå_s
President Hugo ChÌøåÀå_vez are featured in the film.

“Voices From the Edge” is the first documentary of the VIDEOFORUM
PROJECT. The project uses the process of video production to create a
forum-in-and-of-itself: promoting meetings and discussions on social issues,
and spreading the goals of the WSF beyond the limits of its annual meetings.
The primary focus of VIDEOFORUM is to empower low-income communities by
including them in the international political debate.

The documentaryÌøåÀå_s preview screenings took place in May at the Carnegie
Council on Ethics and International Affairs, and at Columbia UniversityÌøåÀå_s
School of International and Public Affairs, both in New York. After the
screenings, the film directors were invited to discuss with the audiences
on the production of the documentary, social issues and the WSF. Both
screenings were sold out.

The goal is to show the documentary on TV stations, NGOs, universities,
cultural centers, low-income communities, conferences, and film and video
festivals. The directors have already received invitations to screen and
discuss the film at the Visual Sociology Conference 2003 at Southampton
University (UK); the 2003 European Social Forum (in Paris, November 12-15);
Emerson College in Boston; Stanford University and San Francisco State
University, in the Bay Area, California. To learn more about the film
and its agenda, check out www.videoforum.tv

The filmÌøåÀå_s production was supported by the Ford Foundation, the
Salidago Foundation and JosÌøåÀå_ BonifÌøåÀå_cio Foundation. The directors
are now in search of funding to distribute the film and to continue the
VIDEOFORUM PROJECT.

About the directors:

Daniela Broitman (daniela@videoforum.tv)
ÌøåÀå_ An independent documentary filmmaker, formerly worked as a reporter
for BrazilÌøåÀå_s leading newspapers, Folha de SÌøåÀå_o Paulo and O
Estado de SÌøåÀå_o Paulo. She was part of the team that created the
youth supplement of O Estado de SÌøåÀå_o Paulo, Zap!, which received
the Esso Award in 1996, the most prestigious journalism award in Brazil.
Broitman has also published in magazines such as Veja SP, Elle, Claudia
and ÌøåÀå_caro Brasil. In the United States, she produced and edited
for television, worked as an editor at San Francisco internet companies
Streetspace and Looksmart, and directed two films in New York. In 2003,
she received a grant from Ford Foundation to complete her first full-length
film, the documentary Voices From the Edge: The Favela Goes to the World
Social Forum. Her previous film, ÌøåÀå_If I Go Totally Bananas: The Percussive
Life of Cyro Baptista,ÌøåÀå_ has been acquired by UC Berkeley and San
Francisco State University for teaching purposes. Broitman has a MasterÌøåÀå_s
degree in Journalism from the University of California, Berkeley.

Fernando Salis (fernando@videoforum.tv)
is a professor at the School of Communications at the Federal University
of Rio de Janeiro. He was recently a visiting professor at Tisch School
of the Arts, New York University (2001/2002). In Brazil he directed the
series ÌøåÀå_Rizoma,ÌøåÀå_ broadcast in Brazil and selected at Toronto
International Environmental Video and Film Festival (2001/2002). SalisÌøåÀå_
documentary on urban transportation had its premiere at Dactyl Foundation
in New York City (2002), and has been screened in Paris, Montreal, Toronto
and eight state capitals in Brazil. In 2003, he received a grant from
Ford Foundation to complete his documentary ÌøåÀå_Voices From the Edge:
The Favela Goes to the World Social Forum.ÌøåÀå_

LOCATION

7

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