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Welcome to another segment of our web show, "Personalities."
Today, our guest is American filmmaker, Kelly Richardson,
producer and director of the documentary "Without a Net."
She tells us—in Portuguese—how the concept of this documentary was born.
The inspiration behind this documentary was my experience with the circus.
This is because in the circus, you have two different things going on.
On one hand, there is a group in charge of the appearances and they had classes for everyone.
On the other hand, there is a social project taking place.
I had the opportunity to work with the participants in the social project,
mainly kids and teenagers from the community that trained for free at the circus.
When I was getting to know them, hearing about their experiences with the police & street life,
I was able to see a parallel, a connection between how they narrated their own stories
and how they present their acts at the circus.
That was my first motivation behind making this documentary.
So I came back to the US, began to research and found that there were many circuses
-that were being used as tools to socialize kids… -To keep them off the streets—
Exactly! Off the streets… to get them out of dangerous situations.
Many of them have many siblings and many of them are involved in drug dealing.
The objective of projects like “Social Circus” is to remove them from these situations
and give them an opportunity to grow and learn a craft,
to learn things that can be used elsewhere.
Richardson observed that the opportunity to train and interact with these real life characters
gave her a new perspective on life.
From all the stories that you shared with us— Djeferson’s, Platini’s, Rayana’s, Barbara’s—
which one touched you the most? Each one had its own essence…
-Exactly. -But at the same time,
there’s always one that touches us in a special way.
Well, If I were in their situation, I would definitely behave more like Barbara.
I feel that her personality is very much like mine, so I, well, to be honest we became great friends.
How long did this project take?
From the beginning to now, almost four years.
But I was in Brazil about a year and then I came back a year later to edit. It took a while.
Culturally-speaking, Salvador and Rio are different.
Did you experience a cultural shock at all?
I did. It was difficult. The slang and everything is completely different—the way people talk, joke…
Difficulties not only arose during filming, Richardson had difficulty
getting used to the local culture.
In the beginning it was very hard— becoming friends, etc…we’re very different.
Then things began to change.
The documentary tells the story of four teenagers that live in Rio’s favelas & use the circus school
as way out of a life of drugs & crime, using tools to become respectable citizens and adults.
At the end of the screening of "Without a Net" in Los Angeles,
what was most noteworthy was the praise from the public.
Don't miss your chance to see "Without a Net" in a theater near you.
Next week we’ll chat with an ex-soccer star and current coach for the
Youth Corinthians USA Team here in California, Jorge Ferreira da Silva.
Can you guess who that is? It’s the famous Palhinha! You can’t miss it!
Sending you a warm embrace and wishes for a great week, I'm Janete Weinstein for BDCi News.