Interview with Cristiane Pederiva: Children in the Audience

25 Oct, 2013

READ IN ENGLISH BELOW / LEIA EM PORTUGUÊS AQUI
By Shirley Nunes
Translated by Harriet Batey

Cristiane Pederiva talks about the Brazilian film festival aimed at a young audience

London’s screens have given more time to Brazilian feature films. The city’s Brazilian Film Festival has taken place for five years, gaining an ever growing English audience. Hwever, many of the films in the theatres are meant for adult viewers. With an objective of also reaching younger crowds and thus find a new audience, the second edition of Circular – The Brazilian Film Festival for Children and Young People in London, took place in October, a month dedicated to Brazil’s children. The festival, organised by filmmaker Cristiane Pederiva , offers a selection of films in Portuguese with English subtitles, aimed at children and teenagers.

Trained by EICTV (The Cuban International School for Cinema and TV), Cristiane worked at TV Cultura in São Paulo as a director and writer for TV programs, documentaries and educational videos. Furthermore, she set up social projects via audiovisual workshops directed at children and young people in São Paulo, Bahia and Minas Gerais.

When she arrived in London four years ago, Cristiane again got involved in cultural productions geared towards children and young people, working caring for children. “This year was very important for me, I saw many cool activities going on, went to lots of libraries and got immersed in the universe of children” , said the filmmaker.

by Priscilla Vianna Müller

Check out the interview with the curator and director of the Circular Festival, Cristiane Pederiva:

Is it more easy to organise a cultural event like this in London or Brazil?
C: I think here, if you want quality, show the need for your project and have willpower, you can achieve it. In Brazil, depending on the initiative, you can’t move forward due to the bureaucracy of government mechanisms. Because of this I enjoy doing independent projects like Circular. No we’re used to it, Pedro (co-organiser of the festival) and I make things happen only with the help of people who agree in our projects.

How has your experience in Brazil helped to put the Circular project into practice?
I’d already ran a film festival in Brazil aimed at children for many years. Children, cinema and education have always been the focus of my work. I reckon it was natural for me to get involved with these elements again. I arrived, wanted to work, doors opened and the festival happened. It’s still transforming, finding its own image, not just being my face, I gave my soul to Circular. Now I feel it speaks for itself, that it’s finding its way. I believe the audience who took part in the first edition, and then the second, also feels this. They are part of the development process and also ‘own’ the festival. This is what’s most important: it’s for and by everyone!

Organising a festival for bilingual children is important as it shows Brazilian culture to an audience which studies in English schools, with other references. Is that your intention?
The intention is to organise a cinematic festival which showcases quality films with great content, made by filmmakers committed to audiovisual production aimed at children and young people. I’ve known directors and producers keen to produce films meant for children and young people and that is wonderful. The Circular Festival is a space to showcase these films.
When a parent buys a ticket and takes their child to watch something at the Circular Festival, it is contributing to the enhancement of audiovisual production quality both here and in Brazil. We bring directors, value their work and somehow we are saying ‘please make great films for Brazilian children, whether residents in Brazil or abroad’. In this way, we feel capable of changing things even when outside of the country.

The first festival happened in 2012 with a screening of 10 short films and one feature length. This year we showed 8 short films and one feature length. What is the main difference between the two editions?
In the first edition we had a session for really young children. This year we decided to try having a session for teenagers. But we are still getting to know our audience.

How were the films chosen? Were the involved directors and professionals from various parts of Brazil?
It’s a slow and steady process. Each new discovered film requires analysis; we have to work out how it can fit into the show. It’s not easy. There are few productions and the quality, especially the content, doesn’t always leave us happy.

Is there any selection criteria?
Above all it’s the content, what the film is saying.

by Priscilla Vianna Müller

And how does the authorisation process to show a film work?
All of the films are authorised to be shown at the festival. Some directors want paying, as was the case with one of this year’s films aimed at teenagers, “Before the World Ends”. But in the end we got authorisation for free, so we were really pleased!

All of the films are in Portuguese with English subtitles. So, are only bilingual films chosen?
Sometimes films don’t need subtitles. Images and great acting can tell a story well. Having English subtitles isn’t part of the selection criteria, but we are always taking people and families interested in Brazilian cinema who don’t speak Portuguese into account.

Did you have sponsorship this year?
This year we had partnerships with some fantastic people, pure of heart, who believed in the festival. Messina Clinic and CILAVS – Birkbeck’s Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies, aswell as a generous donation from Pedro Batista who paid for all the programs and design work. What we raised from ticket sales paid for some of the expenses and provided an allowance for the team of volunteers who worked so hard!

by Priscilla Vianna Müller

Did Circular 2013 surpass expectations? Is there anything else you want to say about this year? Yeah, it was very rewarding! But the best thing is knowing that people are already waiting for the next one!

Find out more about the project here: http://circularfestival.org/