"Life in the U.S. is good, but it's bad. Life in Brazil is bad, but it's good."
Grandma
Has a Video Camera
A documentary by Tânia Cypriano
Has a Video Camera
A documentary by Tânia Cypriano
Who are the many immigrants of today? What are they seeking when building their new lives? How do they see the new land and its people and where do they go to understand both? Do they belong here or there? And do they have to make that decision?
Grandma Has a Video Camera is a 1-hour documentary about the use of home video by a family of Brazilian immigrants, which portrays their lives in the United States for over twenty years. From enchantment to disillusionment, from idealization to conformity, first-hand images and voices depict how newly arriving immigrants see their new world, and struggle to establish their final home.
The United States has been described as a "melting pot", a land where immigrants from diverse lands blend into something we call Americans. But this is changing. Immigrants today tend to hold on to their past and their original homelands, they resist assimilation in order to live a life that offers the best of both worlds. Children are encouraged to become Americans, but they are also taught to remain faithful to their roots.
Modern technology, from jet aircraft and the telephone to the internet and cable television, has helped to shorten the distance between one's country of origin and the new land. And for grandma Elda, the video camera does the job as well.
Our documentary explores the parallel stories of the family's immigration, and how the video camera register their lives. This videotape diary interweaves under the soundtrack of a personal narration, examining issues of identity, social dynamics within immigrant families and their community, the conditions of transnationality and the conflicts of loyalty to a single country.
Transnationalism reflects the lives of many immigrants who live between two nations. It is a phenomenon with social, political and economic impact on people and countries around the globe. It is changing the way we see such concepts as citizenship and nationalism. Grandma Has a Video Camera is an early look into transnationalism at a personal level, seeing through the eyes of those who experience it. This is a first step toward understanding the breadth and the complexity of migration in a global world.
It is said that more than 1.2 million legal and illegal immigrants settle in the United States every year. California is home to about one-quarter of these, and the Bay Area, the fourth most popular destination. This makes our story not only appropriate, but also necessary, as "immigration has been relatively little studied in the region" according to the California Studies Center at UC Berkeley.
The Lalau-Cypriano family represents the different generations and different faces of immigration: those who never learn English, living solely within their immigrant community, as well as those who struggle to assimilate into their new culture. Some are born on American soil and still struggle to fit their parent's culture into the society in which they live. They live here with one foot in each country, or move back and forth as they can't commit to one home. Some have dual citizenship. Others have lived here for 25 years and still hold a green card.
Modern technology, from jet aircraft and the telephone to the internet and cable television, has helped to shorten the distance between one's country of origin and the new land. And for grandma Elda, the video camera does the job as well.
Our documentary explores the parallel stories of the family's immigration, and how the video camera register their lives. This videotape diary interweaves under the soundtrack of a personal narration, examining issues of identity, social dynamics within immigrant families and their community, the conditions of transnationality and the conflicts of loyalty to a single country.
Transnationalism reflects the lives of many immigrants who live between two nations. It is a phenomenon with social, political and economic impact on people and countries around the globe. It is changing the way we see such concepts as citizenship and nationalism. Grandma Has a Video Camera is an early look into transnationalism at a personal level, seeing through the eyes of those who experience it. This is a first step toward understanding the breadth and the complexity of migration in a global world.
It is said that more than 1.2 million legal and illegal immigrants settle in the United States every year. California is home to about one-quarter of these, and the Bay Area, the fourth most popular destination. This makes our story not only appropriate, but also necessary, as "immigration has been relatively little studied in the region" according to the California Studies Center at UC Berkeley.
The Lalau-Cypriano family represents the different generations and different faces of immigration: those who never learn English, living solely within their immigrant community, as well as those who struggle to assimilate into their new culture. Some are born on American soil and still struggle to fit their parent's culture into the society in which they live. They live here with one foot in each country, or move back and forth as they can't commit to one home. Some have dual citizenship. Others have lived here for 25 years and still hold a green card.
Grandma Has a Video Camera portrays the lives behind the faces of the many immigrants we see everyday. Our goal in this film is to illustrate a cross-generational group of immigrants who came here motivated by socio-economics, personal aspirations and, more than ever before, in the hope of family reunification.
As family reunification is a pivotal issue in the current revision of immigration laws, and transnationalism is critical in the debate of national identity, Grandma Has a Video Camera is an important contribution to the understanding of these issues from the point of view and experiences of the people who live them.
A first trip to see snow, a tour to the supersized supermarket or a video letter showing the latest motorcycle offers an intimate portrayal of the uncensored, the honest, and the amazed. What has emerged from 20 years of video taping is an incredible portrayal of people overcoming barriers: their desires, their loneliness, and their fears, to make a dream come true.
As family reunification is a pivotal issue in the current revision of immigration laws, and transnationalism is critical in the debate of national identity, Grandma Has a Video Camera is an important contribution to the understanding of these issues from the point of view and experiences of the people who live them.
A first trip to see snow, a tour to the supersized supermarket or a video letter showing the latest motorcycle offers an intimate portrayal of the uncensored, the honest, and the amazed. What has emerged from 20 years of video taping is an incredible portrayal of people overcoming barriers: their desires, their loneliness, and their fears, to make a dream come true.
Filmmaker’ Statement
In 1986 my youngest aunt Marina got pregnant. As a single mother she asked my grandmother Elda to come from Brazil to live with her and help her raise her child. So, Grandma packed up her life at the age of 70 and moved to California.
As Marina had a full time job and was out most days, she bought Grandma a video camera to videotape her daughter growing up. Through the years, Grandma’s camera videotaped her granddaughter, her daughter, their evolving life in this new country, and the family around her. For Grandma, videotape became a substitute for family albums, TV entertainment, and writing letters to those back home. She kept family ties strong by sending videotapes to those still in Brazil.
I became curious about Grandma’s videos after noticing how much her camera was present in my family’s daily lives. Every time I visited relatives in California, I would notice Grandma with her video camera. I asked her if I could see her videotapes and in the months that followed, as I watched them, I learned that they spoke from within, of a side of modern immigration never portrayed. The story of the many immigrants, whose families are broken apart and become divided about living here or there. Those who move back and forth, always longing for the missing country, while struggling to find their final home.
We live in a video age where many people tape their lives, possibly trying to find some understanding of themselves and often not succeeding. What is so compelling about my grandmother's videos is the unselfconscious way in which people reveal themselves. Through a constant subjective camera, the viewer is invited into the minds of immigrants and what they think of the places and the situations in which they live.
Production Status
Grandma Has a Video Camera has just been completed - August 2007.
Available with English subtitles and narration (original languages: Portuguese and English)
Grandma Has a Video Camera was made possible with the generous support from the Ostrovsky Family, the New York State Council on the Arts, The Open Meadows Foundation and the Jerome Foundation.
Upcoming Screenings:
January 31
UCI Film and Video Center, Irvine CA
March
Brazilian Film Festival, Brown University RI
April 2
El Museo del Barrio, New York NY
Past Screenings
September
Festival Premiere
Latinbeat 2007
Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, New York NY
Broadcast Premiere
Truly California series
Channel 9, KQED, Northern California
III Conference on Brazilian Immigration and Community on the West Coast of the United States
University of California, Berkeley CA
Smith College, North Hampton MA
October
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI
Popcorn Show organized by the Brazilian Women's Group, Boston MA
November
Reel Thursdays
Biblioteca Machado de Assis, New York NY
Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis TN
Hamilton Theater, Hamilton NY
Memorial Classroom Building Room Bill Cosfortd Cinema, Miami FL
December
School of Visual Art, New York NY
My Grandma Has a Video Camera is fiscally sponsored by Women Make Movies. Women Make Movies, Inc. is a 25 year old, 501 (c) (3) non-profit media arts organization registered with the New York Charities Bureau of New Your State. If you are interested in supporting this project, please contact Women Make Movies at:
http://www.wmm.com/filmmakers/sponsored_projects.shtml#M
"...an insightful chronicle of a family's cross-cultural disillusionment, told through the moving images that a Brazilian filmmaker and her avó photographed during their many years in America." Village Voice
"... This is not exactly the kind of immigrant story Americans are used to seeing, and it broadens our horizons considerably." Greencine
Producer and Director
Tânia Cypriano has been working between the United States and her native Brazil for over 15 years. Her films and videos have won international awards including Best Documentary at the Joseph Papp's Festival Latino in New York, the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Art Institute Int'l Film Festival, Festival do Cinema de Gramado in Brazil and Fespaco in Burkina Faso. They have also been shown around the world in places such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Jerusalem Film Festival, the Amsterdam Documentary Film Festival, Rock in Rio and the Berlin International Film Festival. Her television credits include working on documentaries for PBS, the History Channel, NHK in Japan, GNT in Brazil and Channel 4 in England. Tânia Cypriano has also been a grant recipient of the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Soros Documentary Fund, The Ford Foundation in Brazil, the Jerome Foundation, Experimental Television, and the National Latino Communication Center. Recently she worked as Line Producer on Lady by the Sea, a one-hour documentary about the Statue of Liberty, written and directed by Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones. She also works on the production for Premiere Brazil! at MoMA, an early showcase of contemporary Brazilian cinema curated by Ilda Santiago and Jytte Jensen.
For more information and contact:
Viva! Pictures 37 King Street #6A New York, NY 10014 USA
Telephone: (212) 604 9158
Email: backlands@earthlink.net
LINKS:
verde e amarelo
brazilconzé
comunidade news
brazilian consulate in NY
PRESS:
Truly California
Truly California Press
braziliantimes
comunidadenews
cinematerra
blawgsearch
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Related:
Domingo, 9 dezembro de 2007
ALIAS / Estado de São Paulo
Bye, bye, USA
A propaganda antiimigração está mandando os brasileiros residentes na América de volta para casa
Lúcia Guimarães*
Imagino o sorriso de Lou Dobbs quando abriu o New York Times da última terça-feira e leu a manchete que se propagou como rastro de pólvora na Internet - “Brasileiros Desistem do Sonho Americano”. Deve ter sido um momento de glória barata para o confesso populista Dobbs. Todas as noites na CNN, ele comanda um comício contra a imigração e o comércio livre travestido em programa jornalístico. Seu audiência está tão alta que a cada vez menos confiável rede de notícias plantou inúmeras perguntas sobre imigração no debate republicano que moderou no dia 28 passado . Não é preciso ser estatístico para saber que as maiores fontes de angústia do público americano hoje são a guerra no Iraque e a recessão - já em curso -, depende do economista que ouvirmos.
“Lou Dobbs está vencendo”, declarou em novembro o colunista conservador David Brooks, no New York Times. Brooks lembrou que, não faz muito tempo, a maioria da opinião pública americana era a favor da liberalização da política de imigração. Até Hillary Clinton teve que desmentir uma declaração recente, por ter tido a audácia de apoiar uma iniciativa do governador novaiorquino Eliot Spitzer, a favor da concessão de carteiras de motoristas para ilegais. O argumento do governador, que também teve que fugir da briga com o rabo entre as pernas, era óbvio: quanto mais motoristas sem carteira nas estradas, mais mortes no trânsito.
A vitória evidente da propaganda antiimigrante (que os americanos liberais lamentavam como um problema europeu) e seus desdobramentos é uma das origens da decisão de milhares de brasileiros que tomam o caminho de volta, antes mesmo de ter acumulado o mínimo de poupança para recomeçar a vida no Brasil. A migra, como é conhecida a temida divisão de meganhas encarregados dos arrastões, está visível como nunca. Havia um pacto hipócrita que permitia aos pequenos e médios empresários americanos empregar a necessária mão-de-obra ilegal, pagar-lhes salários mais baixos e burlar leis trabalhistas. Mas a virada populista e uma enxurrada de leis estaduais antiimigração (um recorde de 170 leis aprovadas este ano) deram impulso às batidas. Pizzarias na Califórnia, padarias em Massachusetts, fábricas no Colorado, as ações policiais começaram a pipocar, separar famílias e criaram um clima de insegurança enorme. Hoje há uma espera muito maior em todos os processos burocráticos envolvendo imigrantes.
Mas a mudança cultural, ainda que difícil de medir, é um ator psicológico evidente que cria desconforto entre os imigrantes, mesmo os que têm seus papéis legalizados. Hoje, em cidades com grande presença brasileira como Boston, muitos têm medo de aparecer até para uma festa de 7 de setembro.
Quando desembarquei em Nova York para passar um ano, em 1985, a atmosfera era outra.
Os novaiorquinos se preocupavam com o crime comum e a polícia se ocupava de tráfico de drogas e da Máfia. Havia uma sensação de segurança, uma falta de preocupação em ser destacado como estrangeiro.
Em 1990, com a passagem do Ato de Imigração, os Estados Unidos aumentaram a cota anual de imigrantes para 700 mil, num reconhecimento da importância do trabalho estrangeiro na economia progressivamente globalizada. A elite americana continua empregando exércitos de ilegais para tarefas domésticas para as quais não há mão-de-obra nativa.
Ao contrário da bile expelida por oportunistas como Lou Dobbs, ironicamente um graduado em economia de Harvard, veio da alma máter do âncora um dos estudos mais citados sobre o impacto da imigração ilegal nos Estados Unidos. Os estimados 12 milhões de ilegais não roubam empregos dos americanos. Apenas os trabalhadores que não completaram o segundo grau tiveram uma perda de 8% nos seus salários, possivelmente por causa da presença da mão-de-obra estrangeira. Mas, conclui o mesmo estudo, certos pequenos negócios nem existiriam não fosse a oferta de mão-de-obra barata dos ilegais. Um detalhe que Dobbs não cita na sua diatribe noturna: em Ohio, o estado com menor população imigrante do país, os trabalhadores sem diploma de segundo grau perderam 31% do valor de seus salários.
Não à toa a cineasta Tania Cypriano escolheu, para divulgar seu novo filme, a famosa frase de Tom Jobim quando ele também desistiu do sonho americano em 1990: “O Brasil é uma merda, mas é uma maravilha. Os Estados Unidos são uma maravilha, mas são uma merda”. Tive o privilégio melancólico de ouvir pessoalmente o comentário do maestro em Manhattan quando agonizava sobre a minha própria condição de expatriada.
O melhor retrato recente da esperança e do descontentamento do expatriado brasileiro está no filme de Tania Cypriano, ainda inexplicavelmente inédito no Brasil. Minha Avó Tem uma Câmera de Vídeo, peço licença para repetir-me, é um marco no documentário da diáspora brasileira. O filme foi produzido graças às 600 horas de vídeo acumuladas pela avó de Tania, Dona Elda, 91 anos, que hoje vive em São Paulo depois de três mudanças para os Estados Unidos a partir da década de 80. Dona Elda é uma precursora do YouTube. O documentário acompanha uma família que cobre todo o espectro do exílio na América - trabalho braçal, afluência, legalização, clandestinidade, solidariedade, choque cultural, nostalgia e deslumbre pelo consumo.
“Cristina”, catarinense de Florianópolis, onde se formou em jornalismo, desembarcou em Nova York em 2005 com um visto Q1 que dava direito a trabalhar num parque de diversões. Quando o visto expirou, transformou-o num visto de estudante e freqüentou cursos na New York University e em outras escolas , enquanto se sustentava como garçonete. Graças ao número de Social Security, equivalente ao nosso CPF, empregou-se até como estagiária na reportagem de um dos principais jornais de Nova York. Cristina está de malas prontas para voltar ao Brasil. “Vai ser melhor para minha carreira”, diz ela. “Há muita gente começando muita coisa interessante no Brasil. Vim para melhorar o meu inglês e adquirir experiência. Cumpri meu propósito. Não quero continuar a trabalhar em restaurante. Espero que o que eu aprendi aqui vá me abrir portas no Brasil. Não sou jaded (blasée)”, diz ela, traindo a assimilação rápida da juventude, “quero fazer parte do que acontece lá”. Aos 25 anos, ela sabe que tem fôlego e tempo para ir. E voltar.
*Lúcia Guimarães é correspondente em Nova York desde 1985. Dirigiu documentários para o GNT e é produtora e participante do programa Manhattan Connection, exibido pelo mesmo canal
