The Making of 'Looks can be deceiving': Film Your Issue Competition 2007
By Katja, Lucas, Rachel, Danilo, Ricardo, Camila, Thais, Juliana and Eduarda
We all met for the first time at the United Nations Information Center (UNIC) Internship Programme in Rio de Janeiro. Just two weeks after we arrived, the former Director of UNIC-Rio, Carlos dos Santos, told us about the Film Your Issue (FYI) contest.
Searching the FYI contest website, we discovered that the United Nations Department of Public Information was promoting “UN/ Global Issues” as one of the categories, which included migration, tolerance and peace. We chose to film a spot on the issue of the high crime rates in our city, Rio de Janeiro. Although not considered to be a city at war, its population witnesses daily violence. Many innocent people are killed because of the lack of public security, especially in the poorest areas.
The spot, we thought, would be a way of showing the world our concern for the social issues of our urban environment. Danilo and Juliana suggested a clip comparing Rio’s violence to war zones around the world. That’s how we came up with the film’s title, “Looks can be deceiving”. We agreed on the idea and began to work on it.
As time was short, we divided up the tasks. The script was ready in two days and we immediately began searching for images. We wanted to picture the struggle between the authorities and drug dealers, and how citizens experienced it. Since Katja worked for TV Roc, a community television channel at Rocinha, the largest Latin American slum, we got the footage on the army’s incursion to the hilltop slum, matching perfectly our script.
Some other images were given to us by Rio de Paz, a local non-governmental organization, which promotes popular manifestations against violence. They were included, at Thaís and Rachel’s suggestion, as was the case of the images showing the crosses at the Copacabana Beach, which pictured the contrast between the victims of violence and the beauty of the city. And finally, Anne, a friend at UNIC Rio, gave us the idea of adding the image of the monument of Christ. After Ricardo and Lucas found the best one for the spot, we all agreed that ending the clip with the words, “Because we need peace too” would communicate the message we had in mind. This is how we edited the film.
The soundtrack was the hardest part in the making of Looks can be deceiving, as we had to find the music in the public domain. Nevertheless, after listening to Mozart’s Lacrimosa (Requiem K626) while watching the images, we realized that it perfectly expressed the feeling of the chosen theme.
Rio de Janeiro: The winners of Film Your Issue 2007 in the category UN/ Global Issues
The last challenge was to upload the video to the FYI website. As we only had one day left, we decided that Eduarda should take it home to upload it. First, she had to downsize the file and convert it according to the rules of the contest. It took her all night long, but, thanks to the difference in the time zones and her boyfriend Mauricio’s help, she was able to finish it on time.
Then, we anxiously waited for the contest’s results. On the second day after posting it, we were amazed by the number of viewers of our video. When we got the news that we had won in two categories, we were overjoyed! The making of this film was a cry for help. Camila’s encouraging words—“A ONU somos nós!” (We are the UN)—were fundamental during the whole production process. In fact, a city as beautiful as ours cannot continue to exist in such a critical situation. We believe that through this video, the authorities and civil society will be moved to tackle urban violence in a more efficient manner. Although Rio de Janeiro is known as “The Marvelous City”, its people also have pressing problems that must be dealt with.
It was a great and enriching experience to make the film. We strongly encourage everyone to participate in the FYI contest, as this is a very good way to share with the public ideas encouraging the struggle for social change. Finally, we would like to thank everyone who helped us: Anne Kathryn, for giving us some very good suggestions; Carlos dos Santos, for introducing to us the FYI contest; Maurício, for his help in uploading the film; and TV Roc and Rio de Paz, for kindly allowing us to use their images.
