Release Year: 2017

Duration: 70 min.

Directed by: Patrick Granja

Production & Screenplay: Kaliman Chiappini

Original Idea: Gilson da Maia

Editing and Assembly: Victor Ribeiro

Finalization and Sound Mixing: Rafael Chacon

 

Released in 2017 at the Rio Festival, the film LIVRES was performed by former inmates of the penitentiary system. It portrays the position of those who are in favor of harsher sentences and mass incarceration and those who believe that punishment and the dehumanization of the penitentiary system will only bring more violence to society. The documentary talks about imprisonment, torture, rights violations and racism.

 

In 2013, Patrick Granja began preparing actors with a group of 20 young people who had just served their sentences in the dungeons of the Brazilian penitentiary system. Some were still in semi-open regime and had to return to prison after the workshops. At the same time, screenwriter Kaliman Chiappini created a script by combining the life stories of each of them.

 

The film was recorded in 2016 during months of immersion in a staged prison, a replica of the prison where our actors served their sentences. There, they told and acted out their stories in the construction of a moving docudrama, which portrays the hardships of prison, the dream of freedom and resignation through art.

 

After the film's release, led by actor Gilson da Maia, they created the Pena Máxima Cultural Institute, which has Afroreggae showrunner José Júnior as its great mentor. Through this partnership, the actors from Livres took off, having acted in highly successful GloboPlay series, such as Verônica, O Jogo que Mudou a História and Arcanjo Renegado.

 

This is one of the greatest sources of pride for Katu Filmes and the entire team behind the docudrama Livres, as it is the expression of our great mission in the world of art and cinema: to give minority and marginalized groups the tools and knowledge to express themselves through art.