Matilha
A poetized retrospective of the events that took place during the first year of the "new politics."
In Depth with the Directors -
Los Pibes
Hey guys, tell us a little about yourself and your background in filmmaking
We are a Brazilian duo who met at the film school in Buenos Aires. There we joined forces to take ideas from the paper in the best guerrilla style of making films: An idea in the head and a borrowed camera in hand. At that time we started making low budget music videos, what caught the eye of some production companies that invited us in to make ads. From then on we keep working making ads and we always try to make at least one music video every year.
How did Matilha first come together as a project?
Matilha is our third project with Francisco el hombre, so once the band came to us with this really strong song we knew that the we had to have a really intense music video that show the faces of this "matilha" (dog pack) resisting the violence of this political system and spreading the message that together we can resist this dark moment.
Lets talk a little bit about this political system. The political statement is very strong in the video. How has the political climate since 2018 helped shape the film?
In 2018, through a campaign of false promises and a hate speech, we had a transition of power to a conservative figure who managed to reshape the truth on the internet and be elected president. However, as time goes by, atrocities are happening and the strategy is always the same: trivialize what happened until it fell into oblivion. So together with the band we took the initiative to use the music video as a way to bring all the negated facts ignored in a single situation through a film that has more than 40 easter eggs inspired by real speeches or events in order to remember people what this term of office has done so far.
The three main villains of the film are very visually distinct. What was your thought process in creating the ruralist, the entrepreneur and the military?
The lyrics of the music have a really direct speech to the president "Let's make him fall". Thinking in this part of the lyrics, we concluded that is not just the president who has to fall, but the whole system that sustains all the corruption, hate speech against minorities, attacks the environment, and many other crimes.
Having this line of thinking, we found these three powers that commands Brazil since it's creation. Whether due to financial, political or even physical pressure, they define what is a priority in Brazilian politics and its history.
Keeping this clear, we took care to mystify these characters with masks that hide their true face, as they were forces that transcend physical forms and perpetuate through new faces.
The scale and intensity of the film dramatically increases as time passes. How did you make a smooth transition from just a few cast members to a full scale battle?
Our concern with the dramatic construction of the message was to relate the facts to an increasing indignation. In the first part we focus on bringing the most affected minorities and just as in real life it is natural that as the facts occur, new sensitized people join this resistance until reaching a huge "dog pack".
What were the challenges in making this film?
For sure it was to gather 400 volunteers interested in expressing this indignation and telling this story. We had an incredible job of casting, searching for a true representation of these people who decided to spend a Sunday in favor of a collective resistant cry, free of flags, but full of ideas.
What projects are coming for you in the future?
Besides the ongoing advertisements, we have some short films in the stage of fundraising and couple Music Videos on early talks.
Do you have any message for our Melbourne audience?
As Brazilian filmmaker Glauber Rocha used to say: “the camera is a weapon”! So always point it to the truth! In this way, we will build critical thoughts that help people in decision making, preventing the emergence of “new prophets” and “bastions of good customs”.