Slavery in Brazil - Web Documentary

MAJOR UPDATE - CAMPAIGN POSTPONED

Hi all,

Due to a viral infection that made me unavailable to work on anything for the last 10 days or so, the fundraising campaign for Slavery in Brazil will be postponed by 4-8 weeks.

That way, I'll get to better prepare and dedicate time to purely campaigning for the documentary.

The good news is that in the meantime the website Poverties.org has kept on attracting more and more visitors, so hopefully that's more people we can get involved in the project !

Needless to say, ALL the funds raised until today will be entirely transfered to the new campaign (and your names and rewards saved - of course).

Thank you so much for your support !

Dario

About this project

Hi everyone !

I'm sorry for the (perhaps) disturbingly funny video - i'm not the kind of guy who will show you the spectacle of people suffering to make you cry and manipulate your feelings to give away money. 

I'm a humanist and a realist, and for that reason I like to show things as they are. And I like to take action, rather than complaining about how things are... and well, that's why I'm doing this documentary !

Have you noticed how no one ever talks about slavery in Brazil?

Slavery and exploitation are not very media-friendly, not very sensational. And modern slavery is much better hidden than in the past, it happens in remote places, away from cameras.

Now that Brazil is one of the biggest economies in the world, it’s become an important trade partner to other rich countries. And thus it's become more difficult to point out and criticize the hidden aspects of Brazil's growth: the increasing problem of slavery.

How has Brazil generated so much money anyway? By selling its natural resources to Western countries and China. Much of these resources are collected by extremely cheap labor and often by illegal ways that include slavery and exploitation.

See? Everyone’s in the deal and everyone’s getting his share.

This also answers to the question of “Why Indiegogo?”: because most likely no regular media will caution our project – or at best it would take us a 2-3 years just to convince a producer. In the meantime, that's 50,000 new slaves added to the total.

What You're In For... 

Hell of an adventure, believe me. Especially if you sign up for the video blog, you’re in for:

A)     An amazing guerrilla-documentary;
B)     A human adventure;
C)     A meeting with Brazil’s amazing, contrasted, enthralling culture and people… but also its darker side:

- What’s hiding behind slavery? Who's behind it and what economic interests?
- How do people cope with it?
- How do they escape it?
- How we can help…

This adventure is a realistic one. The spectacle of everyday life… in Brazil… among slaves.

Structure of the Film

By investigating on the ground how both ex-slaves and experts on the matter view this problem, we'll strive to show all the different aspects and angles of this challenge.

The documentary itself will be broken down into several parts, and as such will be more of an interactive documentary that allows you to browse from section to section:

- History of colonization and slavery in Brazil

- Interviews of 3-4 former slaves

- Interviews of experts

- Investigating at least one slave farm - pretending to make a documentary on Brazil's agriculture and economic growth

- Interview of Brazilian journalists concerning the lack of media attention on the problem

Where will the money go ... ?

Well, we do need equipment to shoot the documentary itself. There's a lot of gearing up to do on top of travel expenses due to all the investigation on the ground - going from one place to another for weeks and weeks:

- Camera equipment - from rainproof camera body to UV filters and specific lenses (inc. landscape & zoom to shoot from a safe distance).

- Boom microphone and recorder, plus a few other pieces of equipment we'll have to rent (lights and specific mics for interviews).

In terms of equipment, we're really going for the best quality we can get for the most cost-effective budget. I'm currently looking to buy a Canon 7D (DLSR) equipped with a quality all-purpose lens so that we don't need to constantly change lens in the heat of the moment. This is the most cost-efficient gear that can bring our film to a near-cinema quality - provided we buy the right lens and equipment.

We're really asking for the minimum to make a sound documentary. It also includes travel expenses and accommodation, going from big cities and small towns to find ex-slaves; then moving inland to smaller farms where we can find these places where slaves are held captive.

There’s obviously quite a few weeks of research on the ground as well as post-production later on, from video editing to music composition.

Every penny raised will go into the production and distribution of this film... so that it can have the largest impact possible.

We’re aiming to raise a bare minimum of $15,000 for this project to cover all these costs and provide the best quality. If this possible, going to $20,000 would be just perfect to aim for a much better quality and rent an even better camera for documentary as well as pushing the investigation even further. We could cover so much in this documentary, and truth is, it pretty much depends on you.

You can also check out my previous work as a filmmaker with this show reel.

Who we are

The project involved only 2 people, a sound-engineer/jack-of-all-trades and a director (myself). As a director, I have a unique advantage for this documentary: I'm half-Brazilian, I speak the language and I've been to Brazil almost every other year.

This means that it'll be much easier to directly talk to people without the need of a translator and create a connection with them. This is essential in the context of investigative journalism, as we also need to be able to understand the culture and local needs.

ANY IDEAS?

Contact me at dario@poverties.org if you have any particular suggestions or recommendations for the documentary!

PS: the price of the rewards are in US dollars but when you pay it gets automatically converted in your own currency. Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any issues or questions concerning the rewards

TELL your friends, family, colleagues, neighbours, students about this campaign and share this page: www.indiegogo.com/slaveryinbrazil

SHARE it via Facebook, Twitter (@povertiesdotorg), sign of for the Poverties Newsletter to keep in touch and BLOG about it !

Help us get the message out there !