Utopia.doc

A project about utopia. Ideas. Desires. Memories and dreams. A political document about today. About immigration movements. About being a foreigner or about wishing to leave, to break with the past – both in real life and in fiction. About boundaries: cultural, geographic and human ones. This is a project which is created in layers. Continuous processes that reveal themselves in results that unfold towards new processes and new results….

The first exercise on this project took place in London at the “Rio Occupation London” in July 2012, when we shot 15 houses with the presence of 30 Brazilian artists.

In 2013 we started a new phase where the format and the theme are directed to the project UTOPIA.DOC. Filmed encounters take place in people’s homes. The first step is to inform several local communities about the project. Those who are interested will send us a letter answering some questions such as:

1) tell us a little about you and your history.
2) describe your home to us
3) why are you willing to open your home to a stranger?
4) what is your utopia?
5) is there a place in the world where you would like to be right now?
6) describe to us your daydreaming
7) and a dream you had while asleep.

Some letters will be selected and given to the artists or the other immigrants who will meet at the encounters. The first reading of the letters is filmed. A couple of days later, with a small film crew, we will visit the home of the person who sent the letter. None of us, until then, has visited or met this person. The difference from what we imagined when the letter was read and what will turn out to be real, adds new glances and viewpoints. This will be a surprising documental record. The collected material is edited and shown in different ways at each town.

THE RESIDENCIES

Paris – CentQuatre (September 2013)
For 3 weeks, we worked at CentQuatre in Paris. The participants of this residency were: the actresses and the technicians who are part of the “ What of they went to Moscow?” besides French actors, dancers, and immigrants from Congo, Japan, Mali, Iran, Russia and Algeria. During three weeks, this group worked together and exchanged experiences. Performances were created from the testimonials of the immigrants and those performances were shown in the immigrants’ homes.

Frankfurt – International Book Fair – Mousonturm (October 2013)
The project was promoted among several immigrants’ communities, as well as among Germans. Ten important contemporary Brazilian authors present at the Frankfurt Book Fair participated in the project. They wrote texts in response to the letters. Then, we visited each home, along with the author and the actresses from the project. We filmed this meeting. These films were shown in an video installation at an exhibition room at the Mousonturm. Projection screens covered the windows. During the night through the window panes, projections could seen outside the building.

São Paulo – SESC São Paulo (November 2013)
São Paulo is Brazil’s migratory center. We worked with different communities, including refugees from several parts of the world living in Brazil. (from Congo, Mali, Colombia and Pakistan) Instead of inviting artists to create from the letters, the people who offered their homes was the ones who created something in response to the letters from other people and visited one another’s homes.

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“UTOPIA.DOC”
Creation and Direction  Christiane Jatahy
With Isabel Teixeira, Julia Bernat and Stella Rabello
Camera and Editing Paulo Camacho
Design of the exhibition spaces Marcelo Lipiani
Production Director  Henrique Mariano