MIRANTE
Coraci Ruiz and Julio Matos
SINOPSIS
Between 2013 and 2018, more than eighteen thousand Cuban doctors worked in Brazil as part of the ‘More Doctors’ Programme, enabling populations in poor and remote areas of the country to access primary care through the Public Health System (SUS). After Jair Bolsonaro's victory, however, the agreement with Cuba was broken and thousands of doctors left even before he took office. Those who decided to stay were considered deserters by the Cuban government and cannot return to the island, under penalty of imprisonment.
Today, more than six years later, distance and time have shaped the memories of those who left and those who stayed. Using the documentary device of exchanging video letters, the film ‘Mirante’ will tell the story of the presence of Cuban doctors in Brazil based on the stories of coexistence and mutual learning that took place during this period, the pain of saying goodbye and the contradictions of these relationships.
production
TRAILER
DIRECTORS
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Coraci Ruiz and Julio Matos are documentary filmmakers since 2003, when they founded the production company Cisco Lab, which specialises in documentaries about popular culture, human rights and the environment.
Coraci has a degree in Dance, a Master's in Audiovisual Culture and Media and a PhD in Multimedia, all from Unicamp. Julio Matos has a BA in Sociology from Unicamp and an MA in Media and Communication from Goldsmiths University of London.
HISTORY OF THE PROJECT
Fund: "Edital Fomento CultSP - Pnab Nº 05/2024" - Support for Brazilian Audiovisual Production.
Pitching Sessions: São Paulo Audiovisual Hub 2025.
This project is one of the results of a long-standing partnership between directors Coraci Ruiz and Julio Matos and the Department of Collective Health at Unicamp's School of Medical Sciences. Since 2012, the couple have been teaching a documentary class to first-year medical and phonology students on the practice of interviewing in the documentary field and its links with patient care in the health field. This partnership also gave rise to the documentary ‘Marginal Territories’, produced by the Fiocruz Video Label and shown on Canal Futura; the Unicamp extension project ‘Balzaquianas Forever’; and the production of text and video for the ‘Trans, transvestite and non-binary health booklet: ’not so smooth roads", a finalist for the 2024 Jabuti Academic Prize.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
FINANCIAL PLAN
Production Budget: € 190.000
Secured: € 85.000 - CultSP PNAB Nº 05/2024 Brazil Fund
Remaining: € 85.000