Dissent and violence have beset the major cities of Brazil for the past year as residents protest the police brutality, lavish government spending and efforts to “clean up” poor neighborhoods ahead of the World Cup. And in that time, a band of photographers called 12PM Photographic has been posting short, gritty, fast-paced films that bring viewers perilously close to the chaos.
12PM Photographic, comprised of five photographers who first met in Sao Paulo in 2011, show little fear as they wade into the crux of the conflict, capturing the intensity of the moment and the injustice felt by those on the ground. The work veers between hard-hitting journalism and cinéma vérité, but carefully avoids taking its own firm political stance.
“We just want to move emotions and feelings of someone who is there in the middle of things,” says photographer Danilo Arenas. “We strive to get as close as possible and make more noticeable the turmoil that those involved are going through. We seek ways to edit short videos in accordance with the most memorable moments, like flashes of memory.”
The unrest began in earnest last year when residents mobilized nationwide to protest an increase in pubic transit fares. The protests soon expanded to oppose the Confederations Cup, a run-up to the World Cup. Protestors were met with a brutal response from police, creating an ongoing cycle of violence. Meanwhile, the mobilizing of “Pacifying Police Units” in the slums of Rio de Janeiro to clear them of gangs has created something approaching a war. Widespread frustration has been exacerbated by the billions of dollars the government is spending on behalf of the World Cup and FIFA, which enjoys a comprehensive tax exemption.
The members of the 12PM collective came together amid a shared frustration with the formalized approach to photography they were being taught. Their professors opposed shooting at noon, for example, because of the bright light and harsh shadows of the mid-day sun. It was that rule that gave the group its name.
A shared aesthetic sensibility, interest in social issues, and sensitivity to the indigenous population provided the foundation for their style. It wasn’t long before the photographers were visiting events hosted by activist groups like the Free Fare Movement, a major force in sparking the 2013 protests.
“There is no intention, no sense of protecting any particular idea—we are too utopian for this—but in the way we portray the scenes taking place in front of our lenses many people end up thinking we have some activist slant,” Danilo says.
Their coverage of the protests is pulse-pounding and frenetic, and draws on a shared aesthetic style. Members tend to indulge in the fantastical and playful side of motion work and are interested in exploring the blurry line separating reality and artistic liberty. Noé Vitoux’s first-person journey into an indigenous encampment, for example, is at times difficult to decipher as real or fiction—a love story told among the protests on the other hand explicitly challenges the viewer to decide how real they think it is. An almost macabre bit of performance art filmed by Gabriel Brambatti adds a dose of outright surreality to the collective’s body of work.
“We actually do our work because we enjoy it, the adrenaline of being part of certain moments, and the possibility of materializing our feelings,” Danilo says. “Often the fantasies influence us more than reality. Feelings of fear, for example, can be a powerful illusion, but still enough to paralyze you. Hope is a similar a fantasy that drives us. We are not good at defining what is real or unreal.”
The police, government, and financial interests tied up in the games certainly would like to downplay the realities of what’s happening in the streets and the sentiments against them. As the protests continue alongside the spectacle of the World Cup, it’s up to people in the streets—be they journalists or documentarians, artists or activists, something in between—to share their vision of the reality beneath the gold and green flags.
Members of 12PM seem to think a political turning point has been reached with the protests. Throngs of enthusiastic soccer fans are filling newly refurbished stadiums, but thousands upon thousands of people remain in the streets outside. What they’ve set in motion won’t stop with the end of the tournament.
“The beginning of the cup was a beginning of a new cycle in Brazil. Those who were in the streets claiming their rights never left,” says Danilo. “The political facts as they are now will result in a Brazil that is moving forward.”
All videos courtesy of 12PM Collective
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