terra livre - film summary

[. . . based on the realities of rural life and agrarian reform in Brazil]

Brazil's MST, the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, is the world's largest social movement and the worlds largest social movement for land reform and one of the most successful grassroots social movements in recent history. Also known as the "Landless Workers Movement", the MST uses large-scale land occupations and civil disobedience to force land reform in a country with one of the most unequal income distributions in the world. For many poor families in Brazil , the MST represents their only hope for a viable future and an escape from urban slums or favelas . At the same time, critics of the movement contend that the MST advocates an inefficient system of land reform, undermining property rights, hurting productivity, and placing poor families in precarious situations.

Terra Livre follows the stories of those most affected by the MST. By interweaving stories of activists, the landless poor, and landowners with commentary by experts and political leaders, Terra Livre creates an intimate and thorough portrait of the MST.

The film follows the story of three families in the southern state of Parana; one who has lost land and two struggling to gain it:

Sylvio and his family joined the MST at its inception in 1984. He was a leader in the formation of the Settlement of Free Land (COOPCAL), a MST cooperative that labored together for over 10 years to gain legal rights to land they occupied in 1985. The film follows Sylvio through his struggles in COOPCAL and its eventual dissolution in 2003. After COOPCAL disbands, Sylvio decides to grow tobacco on a piece of land shared by the cooperative and deemed an ecological reserve. His farm is partially financed by a foreign tobacco company. Sylvio's use of pesticides, required by the company, threatens the health of the remaining members of COOPCAL and their land.

Dona Lina and her family joined the MST after fleeing their home in a favela. As a community activist, Dona Lina had initiated a program to keep favela kids away from drugs. Under threat by local drug dealers, Dona Lina's family escaped in the middle of the night to seek a better life with the MST. Terra Livre accompanies her family as they work to ensure the success of COOPCAL and struggle to farm their land through drought, devastating fluctuations in the market prices, and strife in the community. After the dissolution of COOPCAL, Dona Lina and her family decide to join another encampment, Quilombo dos Palmares, beginning again the process of occupation in an effort to secure legal ownership of another piece of land.

Alexandre's father and uncles, whose family came to Brazil as immigrants from Japan, bought their farm, Santa Teresinha, piece by piece throughout the 70´s and 80´s. Alexandre assumed responsibility for Santa Teresinha when his father died in 1995. When, Santa Teresinha is invaded in 2003 in order to establish the MST camp, Quilombo dos Palmares, Alexandre is left with 10% of his land and watches as hundreds of his cows die of hunger and hundreds of acres are left unplanted. Though the occupation is deemed illegal by the local courts, the police do not act. Alexandre waits for the state to resolve his fate and the fate of Santa Teresinha.

Terra Livre goes beyond the narrative of class struggle to offer a complex and subtle picture of how inequality is addressed and how social change takes place.

Brazil, with a population of 170 million people, has the second most unequal land distribution rates in the world. According to the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform, less than three percent of the population owns two-thirds of the arable land. As a reaction to this unbalanced environment, the MST has grown to over a million strong.

"Without a better distribution of land, there will never be a solution to the hunger and misery that wrack our nation. It doesn’t make sense for people to go hungry in a country like Brazil, which has the potential to feed all of Latin America. Brazil spends billions of dollars a year importing food, while less than 20 percent of our agricultural land is being used.” - Benedita da Silva

Through interviews with experts and political leaders, representing a broad spectrum of opinion, Terra Livre frames the personal accounts of those affected by the MST and provides a context within which to understand their stories. Contributors range from noted MIT professor Noam Chomsky – who has called the MST "the most important and exciting popular movement in the world" – to Brazilian Congressman Ronaldo Caido, who contests that the movement uses poor people as "beasts of burden" to enrich "corrupt leaders". Others include Rolf Hackbart, president of INCRA, Brazil's land reform agency; Joao Pedro Stedile, spokesman for the MST; Miguel Rossetto, Minister of Agrarian Reform; and Roberto Requiao the Governor of the state of Parana and Presidential candidate in the 2006 elections.

The people of COOPCAL speak of their land with affection and respect. It is a source of work - the fruits of which offers them both sustenance and dignity. Terra Livre is free land that extends beyond a monetary connotation; it is paid for with unrelenting determination and struggle. The cooperative is an example of a community that the movement believes can be a model for progressive development worldwide. The film portrays how this particular cooperative works and why, after eight years of settlement, it is still very difficult. The members of the community of COOPCAL tell their story from the beginning, providing a brief history of the MST, and highlighting the impact it has had on their lives. As the story unfolds, the film documents the complex nature of cooperative life.

The MST slogan, Resist, Occupy, and Produce has already activated over 1.5 million people. The depiction of one cooperative farm's experience within the larger movement will enlighten American audiences to the kinds of challenges they face and the power of the grassroots. By transferring this spirit and revealing why the fight is so essential, the film aims to ignite further social change.

In 1998, Kate Cunningham (producer/director) volunteered on the farm, COOPCAL. Learning first-hand the poignant difficulties associated with establishing a viable existence from raw land, she was moved by the farmersí dedication to the movement and to building their collective. While the MST battles their negative media portrayal, the COOPCAL community wants to share their struggle and has expressed their willingness and desire to participate in the production of this film.

With assistance from Projectile Arts, Inc., Kate was able to raise funds from private individuals for the initial pre-production trip. In January, 2003, she returned to Brazil with a small crew to reconnect with COOPCAL and establish relationships with crucial leaders and supporters of the MST.

The crew attended the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre to make contacts and view the MST within the context of other progressive social movements from around the world. They then lived at COOPCAL for three weeks to stregthen their relationship with the cooperative and begin exploring the story of their struggle and development.

While in Porto Alegre, the crew interviewed Brazilian State Representative Luciana Genro of the Worker’s Party; Miguel Stedile, MST activist and son of the founding father of the movement; and, Professor Noam Chomsky of MIT. Upon returning to the States, they did a follow up interview with Professor Chomsky to discuss the significance of social movements, the viability of a cooperative model, and the necessity for global social change.

Boy in corn in Coopcal Kate's vision for the film is to document the cooperative over time, enabling viewers to experience their daily life, their struggle, and their development. Current efforts have been focused on raising funds to enable periotic production trips back to Brazil, with a team currently there during the winter 2006. Terra Livre is being shot in 16 mm film, digital, and High-Definition video. The initial shoot was filmed in DVCam.

Terra Livre is a Projectile Arts production. Projectile Arts is a non-profit (501c3) organization dedicated to fostering dialogue between different cultures and communities through the arts, with an emphasis on experience rather than analysis. Productions focus on education through entertainment and creative expression, using art as a tool for communication and understanding in a variety of media. We collaborate with promising young artists and producers, often immersing them in unfamiliar worlds where they can gain new inspiration for their work and interact directly in the environment to share their experiences through their respective disciplines.

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