medicusmundi and partners graduate students of Social Documentary Intensive Course
The students were challenged to produce more documentaries with thematic diversity, and that the production be done in a technical, methodical and scientific way, but I recognize that cinema is an art and requires vocation.
Artisanal mining
The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), hosted, on the 26th of November, the graduation event to 14 students who completed the 1st Intensive Social Documentary Course. The graduated students were trained under the project “Artisanal Mining: Environmental and Cultural Rights, in Cabo Delgado” funded by the European Union and Valencian Generalitat (GVA), with the aim of building creative cultural industry and local capacities to produce social documentaries that can contribute to spread the reality of the country and its social challenges.
The curse of social documentaries was given from 6 May to 15 October 2019, and was carried out in partnership with the Higher Institute of Arts and Culture (ISARC), Mozambican Association of Filmmakers (AMOCINE) and Centro Terra Viva (CTV).
During the graduation event, students were awarded certificates that confer Professional Technician degree in Social Documentaries and four (4) social documentaries made by the students, named:
- “After Gold” directed by Xavier Bila;
- “The Gold Children” directed by Paulo Guambe;
- “The Yellow River” directed by José Augusto;
- and “Golden Land directed by César Vitorino.
In general, the documentaries portray the reality of Artisanal Mining in Cabo Delgado, from promoting the use of Borate of Sodium (borax), child labor in mines, environmental pollution and the legalization of mining activity.
At the event, Isaú Meneses, General Deputy Manager for the Scientific-Pedagogical area, said that the success of the training made him recognize the importance of higher education in cinema and not just intermediate courses. Amaia Laforga Peña, of medicusmundi, in her speech addressed her thanks to all partners, students and teachers and contextualized the scope in which the initiative took place.
At the ceremony, students were challenged to produce more documentaries with thematic diversity, and that the production be done in a technical, methodical and scientific way, but I recognize that cinema is an art and requires vocation.
The course and social documentaries production were carried out with the financial support of the European Union and the Generalitat Valenciana.