July 12, 2021

12:07

Iury Lima – Revista Cenarium

VILHENA (RO) – Named after one of the most beautiful natural monuments between the southwest of Mato Grosso and the south of Rondônia, the documentary short film ‘Parecis’ debuts this July 24, for free and online, providing a different look at the ancestry, beauty and unique characteristics of southern Amazonia.

Written by the young film director Lucas Oliver, 24 years old, the film was shot in the region of Southern Cone of Rondonia, in Vilhena and four other cities in the interior of the state for nine months. The result was positive feedback from producers all over Brazil, circuits in academic and popular film festivals, and inspired an exhibition with objects and materials used in scene.

The film

‘Parecis’ is a dive in the formation process of the collective consciousness of the rondoniense people, highlighting the way of life and the daily routine of the social spheres in the state, especially in the Southern Cone, formed by seven municipalities, respecting from indigenous people, riverside, extractivist and peasant populations to the man in the city. Narrated in a poetic way, it emphasizes the region’s ancestry, the feeling of belonging, and the appreciation of nature as the source of all life.

Oliver, who set foot on a film set for the first time at the age of 16, says that the idea for the short film came from a conversation with his grandmother: “What for her was just a story that was told from family to family, from house to house and from father to son, for me ended up becoming a script. The name came about thanks to the Chapada dos Parecis, which lies between Mato Grosso and Rondônia, the region where Vilhena is located”, explained the author and director, Lucas Oliver, to the CENARIUM MAGAZINE report.

“The main idea of the film was to show what people don’t know,” said the director when commenting on the search for the ideal scenario and the proposal to show something different about the largest rainforest in the world, especially in the region of Vilhena, a city 705 kilometers from Porto de Velho.

Because of its position almost 600 meters above sea level, the city has a more pleasant and mild climate than the rest of Rondônia, in addition to a rich fauna and flora.

Despite the journey of a good few kilometers, for the creator, the search was worth the cost, because the feeling was finding a treasure in the backyard of the house. And we thought: “Oh my God, where am I looking? Suddenly we are faced with the historicity and the scenery, which is incredible. The south of the Amazon, the Guaporé Valley, the Parecis Valley, the Chapada dos Parecis (…), he sighed. “What do we film?”, he added.

“The challenge was to wipe out and break all the stereotypes. Here it is like a garden, it is an arid region and at the same time very humid, so we recorded during two periods of the year, the rainy season and the dry season. And we thought about how to show the fauna, the wildlife, and at the same time portray the progress, the city, the daily life, and make it all connect with each other. It’s a poem, the film has this poetic side”, Oliver pointed out.

Acknowledgement

Even with its official premiere scheduled for the 24th of this month, on a Saturday, ‘Parecis’ has already been screened at film academy festivals and now enters the schedule of popular festivals, where it is, besides being available, in the sights of the voting public.

The next screening should take place in September, at the AgroLab convention, of the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae). In addition, the producer and director received recognition from other regions of the country and from professionals involved in the audiovisual production chain.

“The goal of the film was to be a portfolio of the region, to promote tourism and to be didactic for schools. And suddenly, we are faced with the opportunity to be in festivals, receiving feedback and contact from producers from other states saying that they were very interested and wanting to know if all this is really from here. Now they want to come here and record something too, because they thought it was fantastic,” he expressed with joy.

“Parecis has already been to some festivals in its own state, such as Cine RO and O Matão, but what surprised me the most was the repercussion by the festivals in the Northeast, where the culture is different, very colorful, diverse, with a lot of music and dance, and where it got great reviews, especially in Maceió, the city where I had the most positive feedback and people connected with me in a very cool way,” he said.

“The feedback was the surprise to know that people were interested not only in the beauties, but also in this cultural value” he concluded.

The audiovisual survives

Despite having a degree in Visual Arts from the Lutheran University of Brazil (Ulbra) and studying Film Direction at Avmaker Academia de Cinevideo, Lucas Oliver first encountered the difficulty of access to the means of audiovisual production, much more accentuated in the North of the country, especially in Rondônia. “Parecis brought these various walls, and we jumped over them as we could. We would get a piece of equipment here, another one there. An editor here, another one there, until we finally developed the project”, he explained.

“I think that all of Brazil today has difficulties in developing the audiovisual industry but it is more worrying here in this region because there is no film academy. And if there is no academy there are no graduates and without graduates there is no rental company, no distributor, there is no one in the sector and you end up hiring from outside”, pondered the director.

Exhibition and premiere

With 50 people involved in the production, the short film was made with resources from the Aldir Blanc Law of support and encouragement to cultural production during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The material will be available on the channels of the Cultural Foundation of Vilhena (FCV) and the short film itself according to Oliver “the idea was to be as accessible as possible and the most accessible way today are the streaming platforms.

Before watching it the public can have an extra experience with the atmosphere of ‘Parecis’ through the Exhibition. Parecis: a cut of the Film, which is already open for visitation, also free of charge, at the FVC building until July 16. The exhibit presents objects, materials, and costumes used in the scene. On the day of the film’s premiere, July 24, the event goes to the city’s shopping mall.

“It is a film to fill the eyes and the heart. This project aims to stimulate people to know more about the culture and history of our land, to praise the richness of Rondônia and the progress that can go hand in hand with culture” invites the author.

Watch the trailer of ‘Parecis’