Maria Clara Parente | Director of the Film “Regenerar: Possible paths on a damaged planet”
Interview given to Ms Maria Louisa Vafiadaki
-What was the main vision behind the film “Regenerar” which you recently directed ?
My background is in journalism and acting. Therefore, I always felt the power of storytelling to create change and inspire, so that was how I felt in love with documentaries. I wanted to make a film based on the psychological aspect of the climate crisis and its implications and connections with coloniality. I had the feeling that we had so much information about it, but at the same time, so little input on how to feel and deal with the pain and doubts that arise from it.
I have been immersed in this research since 2018, when I went to Schumacher College and started a project with a friend, Camilla Cardoso, called “This is not the Truth”. The idea was to question the beliefs and habits of being that create the societies we live in. In this project, we created a documentary series (What is emerging?) that was the seed for the encounters that made Regenerar possible.
Through the film, my vision is to touch people in a way so that we don’t feel paralyzed. We questioned some of the usual issues of activism and the idea was to bring something which was neither utopian, nor dystopian, but had a sense of getting together and sharing the grief together.
Also, together with Tiago Herz (co-writer of the film) we were very inspired by Brazilian indigenous leader Ailton Krenak, who questions the idea of "climate apocalypse". He says indigenous people from Brazil have been living the end of the world since the beginning of colonization 522 years ago. In the film, he questions: I am worried about how white people will resist, because we’ve been resisting all these years.
In addition, the climate crisis is such an existential question. And it’s so much more than our human lives. It is a time of massive multispecies deaths. So how do we thrive together in this ? The goal was to come together and see the pain but also the possible joy that still can exist at this time, and to face our collective implications on the systemic violence and the white privilege when it comes to climate emergency.
There is also a time context that is very important for the film: we are 30 years after Eco-92, the first major climate global event that happened in Rio de Janeiro and 50 years from the Stockholm conference -and this is a very important layer to the film and its statics with archive footage.
-What does the title of the film symbolize ? (“Regenerar”)
This title began before the pandemic through a conversation I had with Ana Clara Cenamo, the executive producer who dreamed about this project with me. It is a bit tricky, because people think they will watch a documentary about how to regenerate the soil, but then the film starts with a Nigerian philosopher, Dr Bayo Akomolafe talking about how much uncertainty we live in, questioning ideas of "progress” and "development".
This name has a connection with the idea that the documentary has many layers about changing and shifting the ways we are. There's not a single solution that will fix all things. So, the title symbolized that we are vulnerable and fragile together, as a collective body. The idea is to create space for “partial recuperation" that is still possible, as philosopher Donna Haraway writes in her book “Staying with the Trouble”.
-What are the 3 main themes the film deals with ?
Death, dreams and life are the 3 biggest themes. But there are many more..
Since the first interview we recorded with Bayo Akomolafe, he discussed a lot about the connections with regeneration and the time we live in with death. This became an echo in my head and I thought that death should play a major part in it. So, what is dying in the natural systems, how do politics produce deaths, what should die in our ways of being for change to decolonial futures and how to collectively feel the grief.
Dreams play a big part of the film. During covid, some people became more aware of the dreaming patterns and in our research we found out that dreams have a major role in collective change and culture creation… The indigenous leader and poet we interviewed, Marcia Kambeba, said that "everything comes down to dreams". Humans can thrive because of dreams and can create culture because of dreams. “Mammals dream, but they cannot share the dream", as neuroscientist Sidarta Ribeiro says in the film.
The third part of the film is "To Live", based more on women embracing these changes. How does the body relate to other parts of life which are not human?
Furthermore, we visited the film archives to obtain vintage images, thinking that perhaps we should rethink the past. Not only look forward. We ought to have a mirror and reflect upon ourselves. Through these films and pictures, we highlighted the importance of memory to create collective responsibility.
Can you talk to us about the filming techniques used in the documentary and the process. Did you have any challenges during shooting or some moments you enjoyed particularly ?
I had a partnership with the Executive Producer Ana Clara Cenamo, from Spanda Produtora, who believed in the ideas of the film. The production team had some experience with filming remotely. The technique we used was filming interviews remotely and doing pre-interviews with the interviewed. Some people were filming themselves. This technique was very intimate. If you go with a camera in their houses, it becomes something else and it might scare them a little bit... There was a sense of intimacy.
The interview with Bayo was the only that was "live action", in February 2020, just before covid hit Brazil. It was very special. Every online interview had its special moments though and all of the encounters and collaboration the film made possible…
In the editing process, with the challenge of having too much of "Zoom" footage, we happily found old archive footage from Brazil that we could use -this was a turning point for the statics of the film-. So, we dealt with images older than 50 years which portrayed a future where "progress would come to Rio de Janeiro"…
-What would you say is the resolution of the film ?
I think that the resolution- if there is one- is the idea of coming together, solidarity. We live in very difficult times, we live in times of massive killings, but how can we open space for less violent ways of being? How can we take responsibility but not loose sense of humour with our precariousness?
I wanted to end in the third part with "life" and not with "death". Right after the part of dream. So, being able to collectively dream, how can we engage differently in life? With humans, non-humans, projects, processes... I love what Sidarta Ribeiro says in the film, that he has an apocalyptic optimism in life.
-Finally, what are you working on at the moment ?
We just premiered at Rio de Janeiro International Film festival and it was super amazing! We now are applying to film festivals and looking for distribution funds for the movie and to create an impact campaign to bring the film to schools, universities, NGOs and other events to create awareness.
Thus, we are in the look for new partners and organizations which work with impact stories. This documentary is not only focusing on Brazil, but has an impact to the entire world that is facing climate emergency. You can get in touch through this email mclaraparente@gmail.com
Thank you.
Links to Videos:
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/757240752
Instagram: www.instagram.com/regenerar.doc
Previous work: What is Emerging Doc series: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZTpq1_o9Js&list=PLXw8XHORU8bQEjlQB5SrSpCSiUN1dAo-a
This is not a manifesto: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtjKW6Gl7EU&t=4s