“Skateboarding saves. Sports save. Culture saves.”The message that ends the 360° video “Lollapallango – Santo Amaro”, winner of the II Southeast Regional Festival, also reflects the real story of one of the short’s directors. Gean Guilherme, 19, says that the arrival of the Cineastas 360 project at the Souza Aguiar State School in Rio de Janeiro was the stimulus he needed to continue in school after two years away.
“For a project like this to arrive at a state school that doesn’t have many resources made me believe in our education. And I wanted to get involved and give my best,”he says, having dropped out of school due to lack of interest and to prioritize sporadic jobs in the design and audiovisual field as a freelancer.
At his mother’s request, he returned to classes in early 2018 but was still unsure of the decision. With the Recode and Facebook project, he found motivation, interest, and above all, discovered a new way of relating to colleagues and teachers. “It completely changed our interaction during classes. It allowed us to get to know each other better, develop other skills,” he describes.
The video produced by Gean’s class made it possible to show the world one of the positive sides of the community where he lives, Morro Santo Amaro in the South Zone. The short film follows the social actions for children at the Lollapalango festival, created by the skaters’ collective Ademafia, of which Gean is a part. And now, Gean is preparing for another important step. He will be an audiovisual intern at Recode, where he will have the chance to continue learning and inspiring other young people from communities.
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