Children's Hope [Criança Esperança]

Through the IFP, the filmmaker Sébastien Haizet was introduced to Sao Martinho, an organisation that engages lawyers, psychologists, and educators to foster a safe environment for streetchildren. His intention was to underline the dedication of the people involved in such organisations, who often do not receive the credit and support they need. He wanted to give the organisation something they could use in their fight against a resistant society. He also wanted to the video to give the street children a voice.

The choice of the video medium can be explained in Haizet's own words: "Media today has become more accessible and can help raise greater awareness for inclusion....I believe that media has the capacity of raising awareness and can play a determining role in making our world more democratic. It is really about creating awareness of the issues they face. The more we see short videos online, the more people will become aware of what is going on. The production doesn't necessarily have to be expensive and doesn't have to be professionally executed to pass messages - In my opinion it is an amazing tool to increase peoples knowledge on what is going on wrong in our world."

So, over several weeks, Haizet met and spoke at length with lawyers and educators, and conducted several interviews with the children. He regularly visited various Sao Martinho branches as well as 2 children's orphanages. What emerged was a 3-part video (see below for Part 1, then access Parts 2 and 3 via the "Related Video" function of YouTube).

Children, Rights.

According to the filmmaker, despite the fact that Brazil has the most progressive laws protecting children's rights and was one of the first countries to sign the United Nations (UN) Charter on Children's Rights in the early 1990s, "the laws only remains entirely on paper - not in the practice. Contrary to what we might think, a majority of street children have a home to go back to. However, they generally come from poor and/or troubled families who cannot take care of them. Generally what happens is after a while, some end up not coming back home and end up living in packs. These 'packs' generally have leaders and each member has a specific role to fulfill. They often make bridges, beaches and isolated areas as their homes. Unsurprisingly, street children in Brazil fall into with prostitution, drug dealing and trafficking - all under the eye of a corrupt police, who are able to advance their own interests in the status quo."

Haizet speculates that the core issue street children face is "the overall rigid mentality of Brazilian society. The society at large does not want to directly deal with the situation and charge the street children as 'a bacteria' to be removed. Death squads regularly kill children and by some estimates, 80% of the population approves of this. Also, without a birth certificate it is almost impossible for the children to become a legal part of society; they cannot even obtain a driver's license. Since most of them do not have this identification, they often have no other options than to join gangs and start dealing drugs. Many children need a good home, but adoption laws are very strict and dissuasive....Street children often times have no one to turn to but themselves and do not even have the protection of the government or the police."