Greetings. This is an emergency plea for your support for the documentary film, Terra Livre. Kate Cunningham and her all-female production team are in Brazil making great progress. Some opportunities have come up that call for them to stay and work in Brazil through February but production funds for the project have dried up. Please help by making a donation to Projectile Arts online. Ten or Twenty Dollars goes a long way in Brazil, $100 goes even farther... every bit counts! Please take a look at the information below and click here to donate online. Please take a moment to do this. Your donation is 100% tax-deductible.
Thank You!
Casey
"Terra Livre / Free Land" Documentary film production needs your help now!
Please make a contribution so Kate and her crew can stay in Brazil and complete the film.
Donate here. Enter the amount you would like to donate and choose "continue." $10, $20, $100... it all makes a huge difference.
Terra Livre is a unique documentary film project that brings the stories of those most affected by the Landless Workers Movement in Brazil, the MST, to a broad audience in the United States. It paints intimate portraits of three families: one that owns the land and two who are struggling to gain it, as they fight to create a better life for themselves.
Brazil's MST, the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, is the world's largest social movement for land reform and one of the most successful grassroots 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 is a Projectile Arts production. Projectile Arts is a non-profit (501c3) organization.
|
Note from Kate, 17 January 2006:
The past few weeks have been amazing and intense. The breadth and the scope of the documentary project Terra Livre has reached new levels. I am overwhelmed and exhausted - at the same time very inspired. I have shot twice the amount of tape I thought i would (or wanted to- or budgeted for!) and we have not paused for a minute.
We spent two weeks living at the MST camp (a place that they have occupied on a land owners property) filming the daily work, intimate activities, and stories of one of the main families of the film. We also tried to dissect and understand the way the MST organizes, how they occupy land, how and why decisions are made - then how they live, educate, and feed hundreds of families - all the while under tents of black plastic with no electricity, little running water and extreme heat. I think in the 20 hours of footage we shot there, there are some pretty deep answers.
We were also able to walk to the other side of the farm where the landowner lived, before the MST took over his farm. it was a bit of a shock for me to come in such close contact to the people with whom those I have known for the past 7 years are engaged in a very serious fight. We spoke with his brother in law - who lives at the farm as well as the fazendero himself who lives in a city a couple hours away (he is afraid to go to his property). Emilia led the interview and it went really well - they opened up and relayed the story of what it feels like to have their land taken. They also revealed some information to us about the occupation that really made us question everything about the whole situation, which led us to investigate a bit further- occupation leaders, judges, politicians etc.
Today we had an incredible interview with Jose Rainha of the MST- a legend in the Pontal - the region where all this is happening and internationally as well. He has been in and out of prison many times and has been made a spectacle of in the media. He is extremely eloquent, passionate and intelligent (extremely impressive for someone with a fourth grade education). He is someone who is difficult to find these days, and very difficult to get an interview with, but because of the trust that Sandra (producer) was able to garner in the cooperative we visited for one of our other interviews- they helped facilitate the communication with him.
so tonight us 4 ladies are headed out on an overnight bus to COOPCAL, the cooperative where the film orginated, we'll spend a few days there on the farm....then to Curitiba to have lunch with the Governor of the state of Parana, where all this is happening, for yet another perpective on this situation.
The rest is up in the air. We really need to stay here, do a little more shooting and start the post-production. I have everything I need here to edit, and 3 enthusiastic translators. But my ticket returns to New York on Jan 25 and money has dried up. if you know of anyone who can help please let me know........ this project is amazing and needs to be finished. We have everything in place to work for the next few months, we just need the funding to do it.
beijos to all...
kate
Many other things are needed to make this production successful. Whether you wish to donate money, time, services, gear, tape stock/ film, or advise
please contact: Kate Cunningham
internships are avaiable
To make a TAX DEDUCTABLE DONATION,
Donate online here!
or please send checks to:
Projectile Arts, Inc.
Terra Livre film
80 Franklin Street
Brooklyn, NY 11222
|
