Back in 2018, Brazilian heiress and philanthropist Olga Rabinovic sat down with her team and gave them a mission to find the most effective way to foster causes in their home country that were in dire need of effective financial support. After a year of research, Olga found her answer in the film industry, launching the Olga Rabinovich Institute in the same year and Project Paradiso the following year.
Projeto Paradiso offers a wide range of support to help Brazilian screen professionals maximize their presence on the world stage. The organization is focused on internationalization, working with partners to connect national talent to opportunities around the world, providing scholarships, training opportunities, and carefully selected resources. The initiative has recently produced buzzy festival titles such as Berlinale winner Alan Deverton’s The World of Goo Goo and Grace Passo’s Our Secret, and boasts a talent network of 264 professionals, including Anita Rocha da Silveira (Medusa), Juliana Rojas (Good Manners) and Dilla Paes (Manas).
Projeto Paradiso’s work is almost unprecedented in its scope and ease of bureaucracy. Given that Rabinovich has a single source of funding and operates without a regulatory body that burdens management, the institute is incredibly adaptable and agile in the way it supports its talent. As Projeto Paradiso celebrates the 3rd Talent Network National Conference in Recife, Variety interviews Rabinovic and her associate Roberta de Oliveira e Corbo about the institute’s origins, what makes it different, and how one woman is single-handedly changing the present and future of Brazilian cinema.
Roberta de Oliveira e Corvo, Olga Rabinovic, Josephine Bourgois, provided by Projeto Paradiso
“I have been extremely privileged throughout my life, and I have always been conscious of this privilege and my good fortune,” Rabinovich says. “One day, I sat down with my longtime lawyer and friend Roberta and said I wanted to give back in some way. I had been blessed with great opportunities in life, and I felt like I wanted to give others the same opportunities.”
When Rabinovic first heard about the problems plaguing Brazil’s film industry, she immediately felt she had found her purpose. “I loved the idea of supporting film because I think it’s a magical art form,” she says. “You walk into the preview room not knowing whether you’re going to be uplifted, upset or moved. It’s a transformative experience. I think it’s amazing that we can collectively have such a moving artistic experience. I was immediately on board with that feeling.”
After a long study, the institute’s team found that although the country boasts a healthy incentive and public funding system, there is a lack of investment in development. “At that time, there was unanimous agreement that the domestic film industry was not struggling with production itself, because the structures were in place to foster that side of the market,” Corbo added. “What we learned is that Brazilian filmmakers didn’t have time to mature their scripts because they had to make a living doing this creative work. That’s when we first came up with the idea for the incubator.”
The incubator was Projeto Paradiso’s first initiative, even though the organization did not have an official name at the time. “Then Bolsonaro came along and we became a bigger initiative and supported a broader network,” Rabinovic recalls. “Bolsonaro wanted to completely destroy the culture. I said silently: I will not allow that to happen. Let’s see what we can do.”
When funding for Brazil’s National Film Agency’s Unsine and other initiatives plummeted under Bolsonaro, Rabinovic stepped in to help Brazilian filmmakers cover their travel costs to attend major international film festivals. This quick thinking and even faster action became deeply ingrained in the Institute’s ethos. Walking around Recife’s Cais do Certan neighborhood, where the Projeto Paradiso Talent Network national conference is currently being held, you can hear producers, directors, and screenwriters praising the program’s effectiveness. One producer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it took less than a week for the money to arrive in her bank account after the Paradiso team confirmed that her travel expenses to a European festival would be paid. “I’ve been a producer for over 20 years and I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“Our secret”
“Our Secret” © entrefilms / Wilssa Esser
Asked how this could be run effectively, Corvo said the answer was “simple, but frankly very sad.” “We’re dealing with a private fund managed by a single organization. We don’t have to have a long compliance process for every single decision. We have an accounting committee that oversees our work, but there’s no time wasted trying to make things happen. Very rarely. If one of our team members comes to us and tells us that someone has been selected for the program and needs to jump on the opportunity immediately, we will make it happen right away. There is a direct channel between us and the talent.”
It also helps that the institute deals with relatively small grants, a decision made very early in the company’s formation. “Rather than just one or two large grants, we decided to offer several smaller grants that could have a meaningful impact on individuals and their projects,” Corvo adds.
“I remember the day Josephine[Bourgois, executive director of Projet Paradiso]told us about the idea of ‘final funding,’ which is the last money a filmmaker needs to complete a project. This is often the equivalent of $3,000. But it can make or break a project. The institute can suddenly step in and make it happen very quickly. Some people came to us in tears, some wrote long letters… It’s incredible to see the impact of a grant like that.
Rabinovitch was something of a rock star at talent networking gatherings, often stopped by grateful grant recipients in Cais de Certon’s labyrinthine hallways. The warmth she felt at the event makes the philanthropist visibly emotional. “It’s such an honor and an overwhelming sense of satisfaction,” she says. “I can’t believe that something that felt so small at the time has become such a success. It’s very moving, but I also feel a huge responsibility. I’m just so grateful to be able to make it happen.”
As for the future, Rabinovitch said she plans to approach philanthropy as a long-term commitment. “When Projeto Paradiso turned five years old, we had a meeting to think about the next five years and what our professionalization priorities would be,” she recalls. “We wanted to have everything in place to ensure that this is an initiative that can last. I don’t want to put an expiration date on this. I would love to see it work in perpetuity, and I’m sure it will.”
