Pupilo brings the film “Onde foi que eu errei?” to FIDBA #LINK
From October 6 to 11, Rio de Janeiro hosted #LINK, the industry section of the FIDBA – International Documentary Film Festival. Pupilo took part with the film Onde foi que eu errei? (“Where Did I Go Wrong?”), Rudolfo Auffinger’s first feature documentary, and earned two important recognitions at the event: the Follow Up Award and the FRAPA Award.
#LINK is a market space created within FIDBA to promote documentary production in Argentina and Latin America, as well as to foster regional and international connections. During the event there were pitching sessions, workshops and conferences focused on the development and circulation of projects.
Onde foi que eu errei? is an autobiographical documentary in which the director revisits archive images from his own childhood to confront the “recipe” for becoming a man. After having two daughters, the couple of German-Austrian immigrants wanted a boy, someone to carry on the family name. Using the supposed method of “making a boy” during sex, Rudolfo was born in May 1988.
From an early age, he realized he was different from the other children: he liked dolls, preferred to play with girls, spent hours making up doctor’s appointments with the neighbors. At age 12, wearing a clip-on earring on his right ear (back then, a synonym for “being gay”), he was ridiculed while everyone sang the national anthem at school. Shame, loneliness and guilt — the fear of not being accepted into the kingdom of heaven — pushed Rudolfo to seek the same recipe that guided his birth: that of becoming “a real man.”
He dances square dance with the girls of his class at the June festival, tries to run from his friends and force himself to hang out with the boys and, at his mother’s insistence, even kisses a girl at the movies. But in this failed attempt to follow a manual that never fit him, what he finds is the machismo and permissiveness that shaped the lives of boys in the 1990s: sleeping after lunch while his sisters washed the dishes, having to brag about his own rudeness in P.E., attacking and humiliating others to fit in.
At #LINK, Pupilo presented Onde foi que eu errei? in pitching rounds, one-on-one meetings and encounters with Latin American and European players, aiming to expand the film’s possibilities for co-production, distribution and international circulation. As a result of taking part, the project won the Follow Up Award and the FRAPA Award, which reinforce its market potential and secure new mentoring for the feature’s development.
In every session, the project drew attention for the strength of its subject and its autobiographical approach. Industry professionals highlighted the relevance of the discussion on masculinity, childhood and social pressure — issues that resonate with different contexts across Latin America.
For Pupilo, taking part in FIDBA meant strengthening connections, presenting the company’s work to other markets and placing the film on new paths of development. After passing through DOCSP and NPA Curitiba, its presence at FIDBA, together with the awards received, consolidated another important step in the feature’s journey, expanding its visibility and its partnership possibilities.
