Amazonian filmmakers criticize Ancine for lack of support for the North region in public notice

Amazonian cinema

Filmmakers from Manaus spoke in an exclusive interview with Em Tempo, showing the reality of valuing local culture

Manaus (AM) -The National Film Agency (Ancine) released the preliminary results of the “New Directors” public notice on Wednesday (18), with a total of 519 proposals approved for evaluation, 26 from the North region. However, no northern project was contemplated, causing revolt among independent producers, artists and local filmmakers.

According to the announcement, five criteria were evaluated in the projects, among them the physical and financial structure, commercial strategy, potential commercial return of the work and perspective of participation in national and international exhibitions and festivals.

The director and screenwriter, Bernardo Ale Abinader, sees flaws in the assessment and in the scoring system. “Criterion A – artistic design, including synopsis, director’s vision and screenplay, storyboard or documentary structure – should have been worth more points or given greater weight, as the artistic aspect of a work of art is most important. The space for filling in the form was also very small, considering that it is a public notice for a feature film. I have already participated in short film public notices with more space”, he points out.

The total investment made available was R$100 million, and of these, R$10 million would be exclusively for proposals in the North, Northeast and Midwest regions. However, filmmaker Sergio Andrade, explains that the division of the country into “nuclei of regions”, weakened the North in distributions.

“About 5 years ago, the audiovisual laws were divided to be embraced by cores. Then there is the Midwest – North – Northeast cone, and then there is the South and Southeast regions. Within this nucleus of regions, the North ends up losing much of its power, because it has to compete with the Northeast and the Midwest, and in the past it was only the states that made up the region that competed with each other”,

explains.

For local filmmakers and audiovisual producers, Ancine’s decisions, in addition to being serious and disrespectful, showed several current problems of public investment in local cinema.

The filmmaker, Zeudi Souza, reflects that there was an unfeasibility of the region, which has essential potentials and particularities for cinema.

“Cinema from the North has already shown its strength, we are filmmakers and we produce Brazilian culture. I think that this way of looking at filmmakers from the north, who have indeed stood out in festivals in Brazil and around the world, no longer fits”,

said.

Repercussion

After the announcement of the preliminary result, on Thursday (19), the Audiovisual Connection Center-West, North and Northeast (CONNE), and the Association of Black Audiovisual Professionals (APAN), published in their social networks, a letter to Ancine with suggestions for correcting this notice and others in the future.

The agency disclosed, in a report on the website, that they will adopt, as a matter of urgency, measures to also assist filmmakers in the North Region, based on supplemental resources, which is being evaluated.

Zeudi sees this decision as an attempt to correct an error, as it is a way to reopen the discussion on audiovisual production outside the southeast axis of Brazil.

“Imagine a whole region, with people who are already in the production area, who are looking for opportunities to make their first feature, and among the more than 30 projects there are none. There is something very wrong with that. I don’t want to see it as a consolation prize, but that Ancine knows that there are professionals here, and that we are not oblivious to the discussions that come from the Agency. And that, from now on, we will be fighting more and more for this decentralization”,

ends.

Read more:

CineMaterna Project shows movie “Avatar”, this Tuesday (17), in Manaus

Shopping in Manaus adapts a movie session for autistic children

Popular Culture Segment kicks off the sectoral meetings of the Paulo Gustavo Law