Cannes 2010 Interview: Cavi Borges – Critic’s Week Short: A Distração de Ivan

A Distração de Ivan tells the story of Ivan, an eleven-year-old boy. He lives with his grandmother in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro. Amidst his everyday tricks and squabbles with friends, he will mature. Cavi Borges, the director, talks about the short film and how he feels about being selected amongst the filmmakers part of 2010 Cannes’ the Critic’s Week/Semaine de la Critique.

Anny Gomes: How did the initial idea come about and how did this become a story you wanted to tell?
Cavi Borges: The script is based on Gustavo Melo’s childhood and talks about a poor neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, an area mistreated by the media because of its increased violence rate. We wanted to show the positive things that take place in that area as well.

Gomes: How the partnership between Cavi and Gustavo Melo took place?
Borges: I met Gustavo and the movies made by the Nós do Morro Group at a movie festival at ODEON, here in Rio. I fell in love by the energy of the people that live in Vidigal and I started to go to their cinema classes over there. After that, I started to organize cinema meetings and then also to make movies with them.

Gomes: Cavi used to be a judo athlete. What did you bring from your athletic life to the cinematic industry?
Borges: I was going to participate at the 1996’s Summer Olympics and right before the trip I got hurt. I lost all my sponsorship contracts and decided to do something else that would bring me money. I had the idea to open a video store. It was going to be a store with “fight-action” movies only. Later on, I realized it was not going to happen. I ended up making a store specialized in art movies. In a short period of time, the store started to become a reference between the movie-goers in Rio. I started to date a film student that was a client of my store so I began to be friends with movie directors and then started to make my own.

Gomes: How was the casting process?
Borges: Everyone in the movie is from the Nós do Morro Group, a 20 years old acting school in the slums of Vidigal. The actors from City of God also came from this place.

Gomes: How André Gonçalves and Mirian Pérsia came to be a part of this project?
Borges: Mirian Pérsia is a teacher at Nós do Morro and André Golçalves is a very good friend of those people.

Gomes: Gustavo Melo grew up at Brás de Pina, is it true that the memories of your pre-adolescence years served as inspiration for the ‘A distração de Ivan’s story?’ Ironically, the film’s “villain”would be Dona Vida (Mrs Life), this character was based on someone?
Borges: Yes. All that happened. We shot the movie in the original locations; the grandmother’s house is the grandmother’s house in real life. His grandmother was a truly moody person that did not like the neighbors.

Gomes: What was the hardest aspect of shooting this short feature?
Borges: To deal with a large crew (50 people). Usually, my movies are made with a much smaller crew, normally around five people. The weather also did not help and because most of the movie was planned to be shot at an open space, the rain was one of the biggest enemies in shooting.

Gomes: How the neighborhood of Brás de Pina reacted seeing the cameras and the movie being shot there?
Borges: They initially thought it was awkward but afterwards they opened up to the idea. 

Gomes: The short movie received an award for Best Original Score at CINE PE 2009, who was the artist behind the soundtrack?
Borges: It was Bernardo Gebara that created it. We used the Central Station ‘s music score as a reference for it.

Gomes: Cavi, you are interested in spreading the art of cinema to the Brazilian population that has no access to cinema itself. After this award, what do you expect to receive from the critics?
Borges: I hope Cannes allows new possibilities for more shootings and moviemaking in our area, probably good partnerships with other filmmakers, whether from the “ghetto” or “suburbs”. I want to create, make, distribute and release what I do, so I can reach as many people possible.

Gomes: How do you deal with being selected for Cannes?
Borges: Being selected for Cannes is like winning the lottery. Two thousand movie applications were made yet only seven were selected. I believe it will bring some kind of recognition from the critics and people in general. If we get some sort of recognition internationally, we will have local respect as well.

Gomes: What are your future plans and projects?
Borges: Cavideo (my store) is working on three movies and some short ones as well.

Click here for more info on the film.