More than 700 public school students attend the 2nd Chica Pelega Film Festival in Campos Novos
The 2nd Chica Pelega Film Festival premiered last Monday, April 11, in Campos Novos. Three short films were screened in four school sessions, plus an evening session open to the public, with one short and one feature film. All with free admission. The project is carried out by the Government of the State of Santa Catarina, through the Santa Catarina Cultural Foundation (FCC), with funds from the Federal Government and the Aldir Blanc Law, and produced by VMS Produções and Pupilo TV of Joaçaba. In the coming weeks, the Festival will also pass through the municipalities of Curitibanos (18) and Caçador (25).
In the morning, 354 students from the municipal public network – Prof. Nair da Silva Gris (CAIC); Sta Julia Billiart; Novos Campos – and the state network – Paulo Blasi and Prof. Antonia Correa Mendes, Henrique Rupp and Gasparino – of Campos Novos watched the short films Olhar Contestado (2015), by Fabianne Balvedi and Fernando Severo; Irani (1983), by Rogério Sganzerla, and Larfiagem (2017) by Gabi Bresola, in two sessions (8:30 am and 10 am).
In the afternoon, the Henrique Rupp and Gasparino State Schools, CAIC and Santa Julia Billiart sent other classes. In addition, the Professora Virginia Paulina da Silva Gonçalves Basic Education School, from Monte Carlo, also attended. In total, there were 228 students, divided into two sessions – at 2 pm and 3:30 pm – to watch and discuss the films presented at the 2nd Chica Pelega Film Festival, at Cine Lúmine.
Closing the program, at 7:30 pm, the last session, open to the public, counted on the presence of 135 students from the Youth and Adult Education Center (CEJA) of Campos Novos and Monte Carlo, as well as others interested in seeing the films that portrayed themes related to the Contestado War and caboclo culture.
Among those interested was former senator Dirceu Carneiro and his wife, Terezinha, residents of the region. They arrived early and watched the screening of Kiki, o Ritual de Resistência Kaingang (2012), by Ilka Goldsmith and Cassiano Vitorino, of Margot Filmes from Chapecó, and Terra Cabocla (2015) by Marcia Paraiso and Ralf Tambke, of Plural Filmes.
At the end of each session – morning, afternoon and evening – there was a debate on the themes raised by the films. During the day, with the participation of professor Jilson Souza, caboclo, educator and popular communicator, member of the Regional Forum in Defense of the Caboclo Civilization and Culture of the Contestado and of the Paulo Freire Association of Education and Popular Culture (APAFEC). For the evening debate, we also had the participation of João Maria Chaves dos Santos, an MST settler in Campos Novos, oral researcher of land struggles and descendant of caboclos.
The students were not shy about asking questions. They wanted to know about the formation of the original peoples, the construction of the railway and why it is no longer active today, and were very interested in “larfia”, the language created in Herval do Oeste by the boys who worked at the Railway Station, portrayed in Gabi Bresola’s film.
Many of them had never been to the cinema, according to the teachers. We did not embarrass them with this question. But it was in their eyes. They shone. Their souls seemed to leave their bodies and move toward the screen, toward the dream.
Photos: Luana Callai Fotógrafa
THE FILMS
TERRA CABOCLA (Marcia Paraiso and Ralf Tambke, 2015, 82m) A simple people, with traditional beliefs and rituals, inhabits the Santa Catarina Plateau region. Symbols of strong cultural resistance, the caboclos faced a war of extermination 100 years ago, when they suffered severe attacks from large landowners, the State and the oligarchies that had their eyes on the lands the group occupied. Although the Contestado War almost wiped out the local culture, the caboclo people managed to rise again and keep it alive to this day.
KIKI, O RITUAL DE RESISTÊNCIA KAINGANG (Cassemiro Vitorino and Ilka Goldschmidt, 2014, 34m) Kiki is the most important ritual of the Indigenous ethnic group. It was held in 2011 in the Condá Village (Chapecó/SC). In chronological order, the preparations in the forest and in the village are shown. Holding the ritual was an attempt to revitalize and strengthen Kaingang dualism. The film also shows how the Kaingang language still represents an important sign of this culture today, demonstrating that the Indigenous people maintain their identity despite the violence of contact with other ethnic groups.
IRANI (Rogério Sganzerla, 1983 – 8 m) The filmmaker, camera in hand, mingles with the characters of the celebration marking the anniversary of the Contestado War, in the town of Irani. A camera that approaches the horses head-on, that imprints circular movements, establishes a grammar that emerges from the staging that the town’s population builds. The film is his way of looking at his past in order to constitute a history that represents him.
OLHAR CONTESTADO (Fabianne Balvedi and Fernando Severo, 2012, 15m) Virtual camera animation over photographic records, illustrations and rotoscoped drawings over documentaries of the time provide the visual elements needed for a meticulous reconstruction of the places, characters and events of the conflict. The main photographs used are by Claro Jansson, a photographer hired by the Lumber company, who recorded key episodes of what became known as the “Holy War of the South”. “The Contestado is still a war full of question marks, full of doubts about what really happened. In addition to its important historical/documentary character, the film stands out for being open (film and sources freely available) and for having been produced with free tools.)
LARFIAGEM (Gabi Bresola, 2017, 18m) Shoeshine boys, porters and other children aged 7 to 15 mingled with travelers at the Herval d’Oeste (SC) railway station in the 1950s. To survive, buy comic books and go to the movies, dodging inspectors, police officers and even their own parents, they invented a language of their own. Today, decades later, Larfiagem appears as the memory of its last speakers, now in their seventies, who still know, teach and decipher the secrets of its nouns and pronouns.
