Under the guidance of filmmaker Katia Lund and other cinema professionals, (We in Cinema) was originally founded to train the award-winning cast for roles in the Brazilian film City of God (Golden Globe nominee and Brazilian entry for the Oscars in 2003). The project, now serving over 200 boys and girls from Rio de Janeiro’s poorest neighborhoods, has been structured into a program that offers a winning solution to the problems of youth in the favelas: access to information, training in media skills, an introduction to the formal job market, and a powerful means of self-expression, give disadvantaged youth a unique opportunity to voice their realities through audio-visual works. Nós do Cinema empowers these young people as they explore, discover, rewrite and appropriate their own image and history.
Nós do Cinema offers participants training by professionals in basic communications (writing, computers, etc.) and specific training in areas such as directing, screenwriting, journalistic writing, lighting, sound, photography, production, and computer science. Experienced participants complete the cycle by returning and teaching workshops for newcomers. Participants also have access to the Nós do Cinema Talent Agency, where they obtain access to the job market as actors, models and technicians following their training. In this way they achieve gainful employment while diversifying the market.
rom 2001 until today, 470 children from more than 20 communities in Rio de Janeiro, Duque de Caxias, Belford Roxo and São Gonçalo participated in the 17 courses and, approximately 50 workshops promoted by the Nós do Cinema
Audiovisual Educational School.