Join Us is a 5-episode documentary series I produced last year for a Ideal TV in Brazil. The programmes talk about how the new technologies of collaboration and the Web 2.0 are helping to change the world as we know it. All five episodes were shot in San Francisco (Sillicon Valley) and Seattle and included the likes of Wikipedia, Craigslist, Linkedin, Google and many others. It was about time to publish it in this space, so there you go. You can also watch slighltly larger versions on www.idealtv.com.br/joinus
Sorry for not posting anything for so long, I know this is fatal when writing a blog – can’t promise it won’t happen again though. I saw the video below at the Arts Bienal in Sao Paulo last weekend and thought it was one of the best things in documentary – or mockumentary as some would say – I have ever seen. I wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that this is a modern day Clockwork Orange with an breathtaking documentary twist on it. The film is so good that MTV has refused to screen it – yes, far too intelligent for their standards.
The best bit? Exposing the crude reality of European capitals today. All the things that you don’t normally see on cheesy chick flics set in Paris or London are there. The miserable council states, the marginalised youth, the threatening police, gangs, violence, graffiti, concrete, vandalism, drugs… you know what I am talking about, don’t you? Great jackets, funny camera crew, cool image treatment and spotless editing. Sit back and get stressed.
I’ve been a bit quiet for various reasons, but thought that this idea was worth a mention here. It is still too early to say how the new technologies of collaboration – all that stuff about web 2.0 – will affect the way documentary-making is made. I actually think it won’t have any effect at all on TV and cinema productions. The interactivity will probably create a new genre within documentary and journalism. So as we have today TV documentaries, there’s going to be this new style specifically related to the web and the use of collaborative tools.
Here is a good example of what I am talking about – in case you couldn’t make any sense of the last paragraph. Extreme Studio2Cine was an advertising competition that allowed people to create a short film by editing a given repertoire of sequences. You could also elaborate the voice-over and even the soundtrack. The winning film – which received a special screening on a posh theatre at the Champs-Elysées – can now be seen online. Now imagine this same idea applied to a documentary, with perhaps the possibility of people contributing with their own footage. That would be real DIY documentary-making!
Here´s a short investigative report on Aecio Neves, governor of the second richest state in Brazil, Minas Gerais. If you leave the annoying drama tune aside, the video has some interesting revelations. Mr. Neves is deemed by many to be the next Brazilian president, which provoked a queue of media groups willing to lick his bottom. Nothing surprising there, I know. Nevertheless, dissent is a difficult business in Brazil and I prefer to praise anyone who´s got the guts to go ahead with it.
One of the most important papers in Brazil, Folha de S.Paulo, came out today with an astonishing interview with Blairo Maggi (above). For those who never heard of him, Mr Maggi is the Man (capital letters there) behind the soy production lobby in Brazil. A lovely bunch whose ultimate intention is to convert Brazil – and the Amazon forest – into a big massive ranch to feed the world with meat and… soya beans I suppose. The lobby has recently kicked out the respected environmentalist Marina Silva, at the head of the Ministry for Environment.
The reason why I am dedicating a whole post to talk about the almighty farmer is to compare a little the British press with their Brazilian peers. A while ago, on the 20th of May 2005, The Independentpublished a picture of Mr Maggi covering the whole of the front page with a gasping headline: The Rape of the Rainforest… and the Man Behind It. This is what I call a courageous, determined, straight-forward front page. In other words, this was a paper with round macho balls. I particularly like the precision of the term “the rape of the rainforest”.
Now, the Brazilian Folha de S.Paulo – who very roughly speaking could be considered the equivalent of The Independent in Brazil, as it is the least right-wing paper in the country – published a whole page interview with the Man accompanied by the headline: Wearing police uniforms, those kids think they come to save the world. That is quoted directly from Mr Maggi referring to the federal police who has recently clamped down on illegal farmers and loggers. So what we have here is a newspaper which is not only being deferential towards Mr. Maggi, but is handing him a speakerphone just so he can shout abuse at the conservation police.
Can you see the difference in treatment? That is the problem with Brazilian papers. They are scared, weak, hopeless, little Sissys comparing to papers like The Independent. Now, that´s because we are talking about print journalism. I blushed the other day to realize that there is no investigative weekly programmes on any of the seven regular open channels in Brazil. That´s none, nada, dot, zero. A man like Maggi would be enough to create a whole series of documentaries, let alone a television special report.
So here is an appeal to researchers at BBC´s Panorama or Channel 4´s Dispatches. Why not fill a gap, providing an important service to humanity and, perhaps, even win a couple of awards? Just give it a go at a short 15-minute documentary on the King of the Soya – there you go, a nice catchy little title. Perhaps, this could inspire some well-intentioned TV script-writer in Brazil to make a bio-pic or a six-month long soap-opera on the build of his empire. A sympathetic one, that is, but it would be something nevertheless.
