Amazonian screenwriters are selected for the LAB Negras Narrativas Amazônicas, in Belém

Manaus (AM) – Amazonas had two screenwriters selected for the LAB Negras Narrativas Amazônicas (LNNA), the first script laboratory aimed at black Amazonian filmmakers, which takes place between April 3rd and 8th, in Belém. Ane Oipasam was selected with the project “A Cura” in the Serial-Fiction Narrative category, and Domi was chosen with the project “Filhas do Andirá” in the Short Documentary category.

The LNNA is aimed at developing projects by black filmmakers from the Legal Amazon. Six audiovisual projects participate, over the course of a week, in specialized consultations with professionals working in the market, as well as workshops on documentary, script, direction and production. The opening of the event and the workshops will also be open to the general public.

At the end of the training, on the 8th of April, three prizes worth R$10,000 and a Paradiso Prize, worth R$5,000 will be offered, including mentoring hours. The LNNA is organized by the Association of Black Audiovisual Professionals (Apan) in partnership with Matapi – Market Audiovisual do Norte and Casa Ninja Amazônia, support from Projeto Paradiso, Paradiso Multiplica and the State Secretariat for Culture (Secult), through from the Museu da Imagem e do Som (MIS) Belém, and funding from the Open Society Foundations.

Given the different cinematographic genres and duration formats, the following works were selected, in addition to the projects by the Amazonians: “A Onça-Celeste”, by Ataw Wallpa (São Luís, MA), in the Short-Animation category; “Mesa Pra Um”, by Amanda Drumont (São Luís, MA), in the Feature-Fiction category; “O Vento é Meu Irmão”, by Rayo Machado (Bragança, PA), in the Feature-Fiction category; and “As 7 Palmas da Liberdade”, by Mayara Coelho (Belém, PA), in the feature-length documentary category.

Registration for the 1st LNNA was open throughout the month of February and relied on the wide engagement of filmmakers in the region. In total, 41 projects were registered, from seven of the nine states of the Legal Amazon: Pará, Amazonas, Amapá, Acre, Rondônia, Tocantins and Maranhão – Roraima and Mato Grosso were left out. According to André Araujo, a producer and researcher from Salvador (BA), who participated in the curatorship, the quality of the submitted projects made it difficult to define the selected ones, but the responsible team took into account some criteria.

“In addition to the merits of the project itself and its narrative and aesthetic proposal, we also thought about the profile of professionals who could better take advantage of the development space. After all, LAB is not limited to thinking about the project itself, but contributing to the professional development of its participants beyond that work, strengthening its performance in the audiovisual market. In any case, we are satisfied with the result, but the challenge remains to think about how to expand the representation of other states in the region in future editions”, he highlights.

From the analysis of the projects, the Acre actress and cultural producer Karla Martins, who also participated in the curatorship, understood that the LAB will be an innovative space for debate, since it is the first to discuss audiovisual production on the outline of race in the Region Amazon.

“This is very interesting, because we were able to perceive the Amazon understanding and taking a deep dive, artistically and culturally, into the racial perspective – something that took time to be present in an organic way in the history of the region. When Amazônia conducts a deepening process with audiovisual filmmakers on this issue, a space for sharing is launched and, at the same time, a space where some issues are new, which have to do with those of the place, of artistic, cultural, with the specific focus on race. This cut starts to have a structural importance for a territorialized audiovisual thought”, he evaluates.

Discover the activities open to the general public:

03/04 – 7 pm to 10 pm – Cedenpa (Pass. Paulo VI, 244 – Cremation)

Opening table: From the black women’s movement to Afro-Amazonian thought in the arts

Guests: Nilma Bentes, Joyce Prado and Rayane Penha

Mediation: Karla Martins

04/04 – 7 pm to 10 pm – MIS (Av. Nazaré, 194 – Nazaré)

Documentary workshop: From research to idea, from script to montage – documentary is invention

Workshops: Fabio Rodrigues Filho and Luana Rocha

05/04 – 9am to 12pm – MIS (Av. Nazaré, 194 – Nazaré)

Screenplay Workshop: Narrating Better Worlds

Workshop: Maíra Oliveira

05/04 – 2 pm to 5 pm – MIS (Av. Nazaré, 194 – Nazaré)

Directing workshop: Directing proposal – from development to completion

Workshops: Joyce Prado and Mariana Nunes

06/04 – 9am to 12pm – MIS (Av. Nazaré, 194 – Nazaré)

Executive production workshop: A look at project development

Workshop: Emerson Dindo

About LAB Negras Narrativas

LAB Negras Narrativas is a project to expand and decentralize the actions of the Association of Black Audiovisual Professionals (Apan). Apan is an entity founded in 2016, dedicated to the mission of consolidating, in the most different fields of audiovisual, the presence of black people, in order to promote narratives, combat structural racism and refer to possibilities of collective construction in public policies and in the world. from work. Since its inception, it has been dedicated to promoting, valuing and disseminating audiovisual achievements starring black people, as well as promoting these professionals in the Brazilian and international audiovisual market.

In 2023, the LAB holds its first edition aimed exclusively at filmmakers and projects in the Amazon Region, and the fifth national edition. Since 2016, the platform guarantees participants lectures and consulting in the areas of direction, script and production, comprising the entire audiovisual production chain, with the aim of creating bases for the insertion and permanence of these black professionals in this market. The idea of ​​regionalizing the discussion came from the growth registered in recent years of more than 50% of directors from the North Region in the national cinema market – there are approximately 295 independent producers registered and active in the National Film Agency (Ancine).

“To think about black cinema is to think about Brazilian cinema, affirming this in our plurality of black people. Hence the importance of bringing the Amazonian imaginary to the center of the debate, which has not yet been included in the national agenda. Attention to Amazonian narratives is guided by the possibility of having black filmmakers as protagonists in the construction of public policies for the region and in the affirmation of a self-image of Amazonian cinema based on the mastery of audiovisual production tools in the current context”, says Rodrigo Antonio, filmmaker from Pará, president of Apan and executive director of LAB Negras Narrativas.

*With advisory information

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