Distributor Split Screen has acquired the rights to Eliza Capai’s The Fabulous Time Machine ahead of its Berlin world premiere at Generation K Plus. Set in the Brazilian hinterland, this documentary follows a group of girls whose futures are very different from the difficult lives their mothers led in poverty-stricken areas.
Split Screen has acquired worldwide rights to the film, excluding Brazil.
Capai first started thinking about creating “The Fabulous Time Machine” during his first visit to Guaribas in 2013. Once known as Brazil’s Hunger Capital, Piauí was the country’s poorest city, with residents struggling to access basic resources such as clean water and food. But 20 years ago, President Lula’s first government chose the city as a testing ground for its Fome Zero (“Zero Hunger”) program, which aimed to eradicate hunger in Brazil. Shortly thereafter, Guaribas also became a pilot city for another successful Lula initiative, Bolsa Familia (‘Family Scholarships’). This is a program that provides financial assistance to poor families in Brazil as long as their children attend school and are vaccinated.
The Bolsa Familia changed much of Brazil, but Guaribas changed even more. On her first visit, Kapai met “chubby-faced” young girls who were allowed to play freely on the streets, but the reality was still very different from the reality for young mothers. Life for previous generations was much more similar to Brazil’s diabolical slavery past, where women were often married to violent husbands at a young age and struggled to make a living in areas where food and work were even scarcer.
Speaking to Variety ahead of the festival, Capai recalled being “deeply moved by the changes happening in the community.” “This all happened thanks to Bolsa Familia, because the main condition of this benefit is that the children go to school. I was very surprised to see how different the lives of these young girls are from those of their still young mothers. I decided to go back to the community and follow this process.”
Capai visited Guaribas twice before filming the movie and gained the trust of the local community. The director allowed the girls to film intimate scenes of their home and play world, fully aware of his responsibility as a filmmaker with direct access to his young subjects. “We talked at length with the families about the film and its content. We felt a great responsibility to the children, not only physically during filming, but also in knowing what to leave out in the film, because the children say whatever comes to mind. It was a long process not only on set, but also during editing.”
split screen offer
Capai says the film’s premiere in Berlin was a “personal obsession”. “This was a personal desire, but also a political one, because I wanted to premiere this film at a political festival.” The director added that the premiere will be “powerful” given that the film team will bring the film’s young stars to the German capital. “These girls will be traveling abroad for the first time with their mothers, and it will be a symbolic moment for them as their mothers grew up in terrible circumstances.”
Split Screen’s Lorena Morin told Variety that she first saw the film while attending the burgeoning Brazilian Cinemundi co-production conference in Belo Horizonte in September. “We fell in love with this film at first sight. We left the venue moved by the magical world that the girls Guaribas and Eliza had created to take us into their dreams, hopes and aspirations. We started working with the team shortly after the film was shown again at Dork Leipzig.”
Capai says it’s “very special” to be a part of Brazilian cinema’s current impressive international momentum, which was further enhanced by Sunday’s historic Golden Globe win for Wagner Moura and The Secret Agent. “It’s so powerful to see films like ‘The Secret Agent,’ ‘Blue Trail,’ and ‘Manas’ speak to the complexities of our country and be celebrated internationally. At the same time, we need stronger public policy if our audiovisual industry is to continue to thrive.”
“The government needs to understand that our sector is a bigger industry than Brazil’s auto industry. We need continued and stable policies for the domestic audiovisual sector. It is great to see what is currently happening internationally with our films, but we are also concerned about the lack of legislation and public policies that will ensure the growth of the industry. Brazil should invest in film as a tool of cultural sovereignty.”
