Black Amazonian filmmakers can submit projects to LAB Narrativas

audiovisual projects

The laboratory consists of a meeting space, aimed at improving audiovisual projects by black filmmakers in the country

Manaus (AM) — Audiovisual projects by black filmmakers from Amazonas can be submitted until February 20 at the LAB Negras Narrativas Amazônicas. The laboratory offers specialized consultancy to selected projects in the Legal Amazon, with the aim of strengthening narratives and reinforcing strategies for insertion and permanence in the audiovisual market. The regulation and registration form can be found in the Instagram bio @labnegrasnarrativas (www.instagram.com/labnegrasnarrativas/) or on the website (www.apan.com.br/).

The audiovisual project is aimed at different genres – such as fiction, documentary and animation – and formats – feature and short films and serial narratives -, at the end of the training, the initiative will award the three best projects with the value of R$10,000 each. The laboratory takes place between the 3rd and 8th of April, in Belém (PA).

The laboratory consists of a meeting space, aimed at improving audiovisual projects by black filmmakers in the country. Since 2016, LAB Negras Narrativas 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 black professionals in this market.

In 2023, it reaches its fifth national edition and the first edition dedicated exclusively to producers and projects in the Legal Amazon. The LAB Negras Narrativas Amazônicas is organized by the Association of Black Audiovisual Professionals (Apan) in partnership with Matapi – Market Audiovisual do Norte and Casa Ninja Amazônia, and supported by funding from the Open Society Foundations.

In recent years, the North Region’s share of the domestic cinema market has grown by more than 50%. Currently, there are approximately 295 independent Brazilian producers registered and active at the National Film Agency (Ancine) – an emerging market with great potential for growth, but which needs to be encouraged, warmed up, structured and improved with the appreciation of professionals in the region. It is based on this concern that LAB Negras Narrativas holds, for the first time, an edition focused exclusively on the Amazon region.

According to filmmaker from Pará, president of Apan and executive director of LAB Negras Narrativas, Rodrigo Antonio, the objective of the initiative is “to decentralize the way of thinking and making black cinema in Brazil”.

“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 Afro-indigenous 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”,

account.

Rayane Penha is a director and screenwriter from the state of Amapá. In 2020, his feature film project “Call of the Forest” won the LAB. Based on the experience, the director managed to obtain resources to develop the feature and, today, she participates in a script room at Netflix.

“For me, it was a very big opportunity, because I am a black filmmaker from the North Region, from Amapá, so it is very difficult to have access to these project development spaces and access to markets, and the laboratory made this possible. So, certainly, the LAB was fundamental for my career, for me to grow as a director and, mainly, for the project, not only because I won, but because the experience itself gave it a lot of substance for it to become something much grander ”,

reports the audiovisual professional.

LAB Black Amazonian Narratives

The LAB Negras Narrativas Amazônicas is a project for the expansion and decentralization of Apan’s actions. 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, transform society’s perception of blackness, combat structural racism and reference possibilities of collective construction in public policies and in the world of work.

Since its creation in 2016, 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.

The valuation of blackness and the defense of interests from an inclusive perspective are pillars of Apan’s constitution and policy, with attention to racial aspects in relation to all links in the audiovisual production chain. “Instead of improvement and starting from a plural position, as a national entity, we believe in the co-op of black filmmakers as a way of proposing a new national imaginary”, highlights, furthermore, Rodrigo Antonio.

Read more:

Amazonian filmmakers present films at Cineteatro Guarany, in Manaus

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