During the Spring 2015 semester, our Rio de Janeiro Center Director, Dr. Octavio di Leo, led students in a new course entitled Film and the City where they produced a short documentary film.
The film, A Travessia (The Journey), documents the story of four Cariocas (native Rio de Janeiro inhabitants) who overcome adversity to embark on an extraordinary journey. The film follows their daily lives, as well as the events that brought them together for their journey. While the four are all unique, each of them has a disability that has labeled them as deficient in Rio de Janeiro, a metropolis often challenging for their needs. The four rowers work to overcome their labels and come together as a team, offering each other strength and support along the way.
Throughout the semester our Rio students were involved in the filmmaking process. They helped with pre-production (research, preliminary interviews with characters, mutual interviews on camera), production (students followed a character and participated in the filming), and post-production (editing, music mix, and distribution plan).
On August 14, IES Abroad and IED (Istituto Europeo di Design), one of our partner universities in Rio, screened the film at IED's Urca campus on the beach:
Watch the film now, or learn more about our Rio de Janeiro program!
