Over the summer, nine SF State BECA students spent a month in Brazil making two films which will premiere on campus in mid-September.

The films were created to promote Salao do Encontro, an organization that specializes in providing jobs, special skills, education, housing, and healthcare for over 1,000 residents of Betim, Brazi, a city of 300,000 located North of Rio de Jeneiro.

The students who took part in the project did so as fulfillment toward a community service requirement for BECA 580, Media in Community Service, taught by SF State BECA professor, Dr. Betsy Blosser. Students learned about Betim and Salao do Encontro during the spring and traveled to Brazil in June.

The focus on helping Salao do Encontro was suggested by BECA graduate student Vanessa Pinheiro, who also serves as the class TA, after plans fell through for the class to travel to Bulgaria to do community service.

Pinheiro explained to the class that Salao do Encontro could use their help generating revenue in order to remain open. The organization relies on private donations and sales of its own goods , such as furniture and food, to stay open.

“By making the films, the students have created a way for Salao do Encontro to get recognized by corporations, the government and other organizations,” said Pinheiro. “Hopefully the films will gain people’s interest and make them want to partner up with Salao do Encontro.”

The students have responded by showing great commitment to the project, Pinheiro said.
Not only did they spend $2,500 each on class enrollment and trip fees, some also dedicated a month of time toward editing the films after the trip.

The experience began on June 6 in Rio de Janeiro, where the students spent five days having fun and being tourists. They then spent three weeks in Betim, working on the films. They ended the trip with a week in Rio and a beach town called Buzios.

Though prepared to work, on the way to Brazil, many students were unsure of what to anticipate.

"I came there with a new swimsuit thinking that we would hang out on the beach, shoot the films and help out Salao do Encontro, but it ended up very different,” said BECA major Keith Morikawa, 24. “We had to have a translator (Pinheiro), we had to troubleshoot when our equipment messed up, and we had to shoot our footage and portray this place over a short time span.

"It was really insane, but then at the same time it became this mind-altering project that had us extremely motivated and inspired. It has made us all view things differently and we became like a family.”

BECA graduate TA and production coordinator Ryan Stouffer agreed.

“We partied and had a lot of fun, but the rewarding part was helping out Salao do Encontro,” Stouffer said. “It was an amazing experience for all of us.”

When the students arrived in Betim, half slept on site in a three-bedroom guest house at Salao do Encontro, while the other half settled in at a hotel.

“From day one in Betim, it was work, work, work, from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. each day,” said Pinheiro.

The students split into two groups to create two 30-minute films. Their grades for the course depend on the outcome of the films, their attitudes, and their level of participation, according to Blosser.

The two film crews shared two camcorder cameras (which broke), two lighting kits, microphones, one boom microphone, and a tripod provided by SF State. The students provided a laptop and digital video tapes, many of which got broken and lost, according to Morikawa and Stouffer.

“Everything technical went wrong, but everything emotional went right,” said John Moffatt, a spring BECA graduate and film producer.

The rules were up to the students concerning how they could make the films. Time, however, was not. They had three weeks to devote toward pre-production (brainstorming and interviewing), production (shooting), and post-production (editing), said Blosser.

Toward the end of post-production, the groups had created two very different films.

“They are both in different languages. One is very in tune with the process of things at Salao do Encontro, like how the milk from their cows feed the babies and the food from their farms feed the children,” Stouffer said. “The other features a montage of their activities and has a specific focus on a family there and how Salao do Encontro helped them.”

Both films feature a lot of audio and description along with interviews and footage of people, homes, families, how they live and how they create their products, according to Pinheiro.

Salao do Encontro was created 30 years ago as a small soup kitchen. With help from 81-year-old creator, Dona Noemi, and contributing partnerships with companies like cereal giant Kellogg’s, it since has grown into a small community within Betim that provides ample resources for people to live meaningful lives.

The organization is located on an area of land smaller than the SF State campus. It houses about 20 one-story adobe buildings, and 38 homes which families can rent for $4 per month. It also has a preschool, elementary school, farm, and a showroom where the workers’ goods are sold, including furniture, baskets, woodwork, ceramics, clothing, curtains, rugs, bedspreads, dolls, and paintings.

“Hopefully people will see the films and pick up the ideas (of Salao do Encontro) as a result,” said Moffatt, who added that he would like to see an expansion of the organization.

“It is like night and day inside and outside of there. Inside it’s this perfect place, this area rich with resources, but outside where people live, it’s dirt poor with cracked sidewalks and dirt roads,” he said.

Pinheiro said she agreed. “They need money for education, materials, and to pay their workers who make minimum wage, but, in addition, they are eager to expand and help out the hundreds of Betim citizens who are unable to work and live in Salao do Encontro.”

“The most important thing about this whole project was for the students to experience, learn, and show others the way of life at Salao do Encontro,” said Pinheiro. “And they have done that.”