From Vitor:

In 1962, an artist and former steelworker marries a visionary plant guru. They raise their children, grandchildren, and open a bar to get together with friends. I’m Vitor, one of these grandchildren making a film about Zuza – the artist that inspires me, who happens to be my grandfather. He is also one of the more than half a million people who lost their lives to Covid-19 in Brazil.

As a documentarian filmmaker, I believe in the power of images and stories to create and inspire memories. I plan to use the Research and Development Lab at the Union Docs to work on this film project, which collects all the artistic archives that Zuza produced throughout his life. I’ve never done this before, but I am using this crowdfunding to help me with this opportunity of working on this project. I’m an independent artist who will use this experience to evolve and give back the same love and inspiration my grandpa had in life.

I’ll be very honored to count on your help in this adventure!

Vitor Vilaverde is a Brazilian filmmaker living in Ohio. He has a bachelor’s in Film and he’s working on his doctoral research about affects and politics in Latin American documentaries at the Ohio State University, which is also part of his film production. His first documentary feature “Andor” tells the story of the only Brazilian-born who survived the Holocaust, it will premiere in 2022. Vitor has made short documentaries and video essays, as well as worked as a producer for film companies in Brazil.

https://vimeo.com/vitorvilaverde
https://www.instagram.com/vitorvd1/

About the Summer Documentary Labs:

The UnionDocs Summer Documentary Lab are a program for a select group of media artists from the US and abroad. Based in one of NYC’s most exciting neighborhoods, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the Summer Labs offer a platform for participants to spend the Summer making strides and clarify the creative direction of their projects to attract the potential team members, funders and producers they need to find their way to the finish. With a specialized hybrid in-person / remote format, an intensive schedule of screenings, open seminar discussions, weekly industry “field trips,” and inspiring artist visits from some of the most dynamic voices across the field of documentary, the SUMMER DOCUMENTARY LABS are tightly structured environments that bring participants into a select group of emerging filmmakers to get challenged and encouraged to think through every aspect of their works-in-progress.

Drawing inspiration from across disciplines, this intensive program should not be mistaken for an industrial, journalistic, or traditional documentary training. Scholar Scott MacDonald highlighted in The New York Times that, “UnionDocs has a healthy sense that the older definitions of what constitutes ‘experimental’ cinema and what constitutes ‘documentary’ are up for grabs.” Much emphasis is placed on workshopping lab participants’ writing about their projects as a way to both clarify the creative direction and attract potential team members, funders and producers. Participants receive focused, honest and helpful feedback on their project proposals from prominent documentary artists and industry experts.

The Research & Development Lab is a space for projects to grow while in their earliest stages. When a project is still largely a concept or idea, the lab helps filmmakers solidify the ideas with efforts, assignments, and conversations around best practices for grounding the project in its early stages of writing. This moment of focus can help set up projects for success from these nascent beginnings all the way through from funding to production to distribution.