1st Edition
The first Brazilian initiative aimed at feature film projects in development from all over Latin America, BrLab was held for the first time in July of 2011 within the activities of the Latin American Film Festival of São Paulo at the School of Arts and Communication at the University of São Paulo, Memorial da América Latina, and the Cinemateca Brasileira, in São Paulo.
The project was born from the creative collaboration between the Latin American Film Festival’s directors, Jurandir Müller and Francisco Cesar Filho; Prof. Maria Dora Mourão, responsible for academic direction; and Rafael Sampaio, the event’s creator and director.
These four people were essential pieces in the founding of BrLab, which featured funding from the Audiovisual Secretariat of the Ministry of Culture and the Programa Ibermedia and support from the Cinemateca Brasileira, Sociedade Amigos da Cinemateca, the Department of Cinema, Radio, and Television of the School of Arts and Communication at the University of São Paulo, the Programa Ibermedia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bolivia Lab, the Programa Cinergia (Costa Rica), the French Embassy in Brazil, and TAL – Televisión América Latina.
14 projects were selected, representing Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, and Uruguay.
Over a period of nine days, pairs of representatives of the selected projects had access to consultations on their scripts and productions with internationally renowned film specialists.
Attendees included French-Argentine consultant and screenwriter Miguel Machalski and Jorge Durán, a Chilean filmmaker and screenwriter living in Brazil. We had the presence of Mexican producer and director Gustavo Montiel to talk about matters of production.
There were talks given by Jean-Claude Bernardet, Fernando Bonassi, and Clélia Bessa, among others.
Direction
Pedro Harres
Otto Guerra
Script
Pedro Harres
Production
Otto Guerra
Brazil
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Direction
Cláudio Marques
Marília Hughes
Production
Cláudio Marques
Marília Hughes
Brazil
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Direction
Iria Gómez Concheiro
Production
Juan Pablo Gómez Garcia
Mexico
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Direction
René Guerra
Production
Juliana Vicente
Edit
Eva Randolph
Brazil, SP
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Direction
Libia Stella Gómez Díaz
Production
Laura Helena Silva Roldán
Colombia
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Tutor
Producer, screenwriter and director, he has dedicated much of his life to developing film education projects. He was director of CCC and president of CILECT. He participates as an advisor in several national and international workshops on production and project development.
Tutor
He wrote, among others, the screenplays for Pixote, The Law of the Weakest (Hector Babenco), Gaijin – The Paths of Freedom (Tizuka Yamasaki) and Underground Game (Roberto Gervitz). He directed the feature films The Color of Your Destiny, Forbidden to Forbid and You Can’t Live Without Love.
Tutor | Palestrante
Born in Buenos Aires to a Polish father and an English mother, he has lived in Paris for many years. He is an international specialist in all aspects of developing and creating film scripts: analysis, consulting, teaching and writing. He gives workshops and consultancies in different countries and has published three books on audiovisual writing.
Jurado
She graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). In 1993, she began her professional career, collaborating in the Short Film Production Department of the Mexican Institute of Cinematography, and held the position of Deputy Director of Research and Promotion of the Cinematographic Training Center. In 2005, she joined the Guadalajara Film Festival, in charge of the Ibero-American Meeting of Cinematographic Coproduction. She is currently the Industry Director of this festival.
Palestrante | Comissão de Seleção
Curator and consultant in the audiovisual industry, she is the coordinator of the programming and professional platform Cinema em Construção at the French festival Cinélatino Rencontres de Toulouse. Since 2013, she has been an international consultant for the Gap Financing Market in Venice, and since 2016 she has collaborated with the Marché du Film and Ventana Sur, forming part of the selection committee for Primer Corte and Copia Final. She developed and coordinated the professional activities of La Fabrique des Cinémas du Monde in Cannes and has participated in selective support bodies such as Aide aux Cinémas du Monde and Proimagenes.
Palestrante
Film critic with texts published in newspapers, specialized magazines and books by various authors. Author of six books, among them A Ponte Clandestina – Teorias de Cinema na América Latina. He was cultural director of Embrafilme, vice president of FIPRESCI and CEO of Riofilme. Since 1980 he has been a consultant for the Berlin Film Festival. He currently coordinates the film program at the Instituto Moreira Salles, in Rio de Janeiro.
Tutor | Palestrante
A Brazilian, he founded the production company FiGa Films in Los Angeles in 2006 with Alex Garcia to discover and distribute Latin American content in North America, as well as represent it around the world. He studied film at FAAP and the New School in New York, where he lived for 14 years, moving to California in 2001. He has worked at Film Forum, Universal and First Look Films. He was a programmer at the Latino Film Festival in Atlanta and artistic director of the IndieBrazil Film Festival in Los Angeles. He has been a speaker and jury member at Sundance, San Sebastián, Cannes, Rotterdam and other festivals. Since 2010 he has been a producer on projects such as “Verano de Goliat”, “Los viejos” and “Avanti Popolo”.
