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Silent Movie

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SHORT FILM AWARD

Brazil

00:15:00

Directors

Melo Viana

Writers

Melo Viana

Producers

Sandra Zawadzki

Key Cast

Anthonny Vinicius, Victor Henrique, Ketlyn Taynara, Stephany Vitória, Sarah Alexia, Alice Arruda, Yasmin Vitória, Echelen Gabrielle, Isabelle Beatriz

The “Cinema Mudo” project is the realization of a short film and at the same time helping and integrating residents of a community living in a high-risk area. All children (actors and actresses) who work in the movie are residents in the community Vila Torres, an at-risk area in Curitiba. They were chosen after a theater classes for children held in that community as part as the film project. Most of the residents of this community live from the collection and recycling of garbage in the city of Curitiba. The story shows three children (two boys and a girl), in the mid-thirties, setting up a movie frame projection room. They build a projector with an empty shoe box with two holes with the size of a film frame. Inside the box they put a burnt-out bulb without its filament and filled with water. This bulb is used as a lens. Children had to wait until the bulb burned out. Those electrical bulbs were rare in those days. Children visit the city's cinema, dig through the trash in the screening room and collect pieces of film for their projections. When the children are going to do the test with the projector, the girl, in charge of filling the bulb with water, let it fall and the bulb breaks. The boys are not happy. After dreams and expectancies, the girl gets another bulb and the projector is ready. On the day of the presentation they invite friends to watch the projection. The sun does not appear and the children are distressed. But, at last, the sun and the light appear and the projection is made. In a dark room a ray of light passes between two tiles. With a piece of mirror one of the children reflects the sunlight through one of the holes in the shoe box. The sunshine passes through the frame, passes through the lamp with water and projects the image on the wall.

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