|
SANEAMENTO BÁSICO, O
FILME
(Basic sanitation, the movie) a feature film by Jorge Furtado shot in July - August, 2006 now being edited |
INTRODUCTION
A small community of descendants of Italian immigrants in the interior of the state of Rio Grande do Sul resorts to making a video to try to solve the problems of basic sanitation that plague their village. When faced for the first time with the dilemmas of audiovisual production, ordinary people learn (and teach) a lot about the boundaries between fiction and reality, between life and the representation of life. A satire about the intricacies of bureaucracy, an essay about film language, BASIC SANITATION, THE MOVIE is also a comedy with a contemporary theme, but with a classic structure, based on the characters of the Commedia Dell'arte: there is a Pantalone (Venetian), a Doctor (Bolognese), a Captain, a Zanni (the servant), the Enamored couple and the Ruffiana (the gossip). It is a closed, restricted universe of characters who, as demonstrated across the centuries, have been capable of multiplying themselves in endless variations, representing so emblematically the whole of humanity.
JUSTIFICATION
BASIC SANITATION, THE MOVIE is a political comedy about the contradictions between representing and doing, between recording and transforming. This contradiction is at the core of the moral issue that filmmaking, an expensive and sophisticated art, represents in a country like Brazil, with so much inequality and the basic needs of the vast majority of the population still unfulfilled. Making movies in Brazil is, at the same time, a need and a luxury. To have access to basic sanitation is an urgent priority. How does the Brazilian State, the main sponsor of audiovisual production in the country, deal with this dilemma? To discuss these issues with humor and depth is to contribute to a debate that is vital to modern society, particularly to Brazilian society. A Brazilian film about Brazilian issues, but with a universal character. A fable set in a small village and, precisely for this reason, capable of communicating with the world.
SYNOPSIS
The community of Linha Nova, a small village of Italian immigrant descendants in the mountains of Rio Grande do Sul, gets together to do something about the construction of a sewage system for their village. A group of community representatives is chosen to take their demands to the local government.
The group is received by the district’s mayor’s first secretary. After
listening to their demand, the first secretary recognizes its legitimacy
but says that the district government will not have money to build a new
sewage system until at least the end of the year. However, the city council
has almost 10 thousand reais for a video production. The money came from
the federal government and, if it is not spent, it will have to be returned.
In common agreement with the first secretary, the community decides
to make a video about the construction works of a sewage system of Arroio
Cristal. The district government strongly supports the idea of making the
video and using the money on the construction works, as it would make no
sense to return it, but it makes clear that, in order to make a request
for the money, the community must present a script and a video project,
and she explains that the money had been destined exclusively for works
of fiction.
The inhabitants of Linha Nova start making a fiction video that, according
to interpretations, is a monster movie, set in the construction works of
a sewage system, with the sole objective of using the money for the construction
works. What they had not expected was that the production of the video
would become increasingly more complex and interesting.
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