The Inter-American Development Bank today announced that filmmakers from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru won a competition for documentaries on social exclusion, the topic of the IDB Research Department’s main report this year.
The videos were selected by a jury of IDB specialists and independent filmmakers from more than 120 entries submitted from 15 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean for the contest The Faces of Exclusion.
The documentaries will help illustrate different aspects of the next edition of the IDB Research Department’s Report on Social and Economic Progress in Latin America and the Caribbean (known as IPES 2008, for its Spanish acronym), which will be presented in September.
Every year the IPES focuses on a specific issue of development, seeking to generate a deeper debate on the subject in IDB member countries. In previous years it has studied debt, competitiveness, the politics of policies and labor markets.
“IPES 2008 will concentrate on exclusion, a social, economic and political phenomenon that denies millions of people and entire groups access to the means and opportunities to get ahead in a market-based economy”, said the report’s coordinator, Gustavo Marquez Mosconi.
In a bid to reach a broader audience than a traditional economic report can usually attract, the IDB Research Department called for documentary makers to present videos on various aspects of exclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Naturally, the points of view laid out in the films belong to the authors and do not reflect the IDB’s official position,” Marquez Mosconi added. “But the videos have the virtue of showing the excluded not as mere statistics but rather as real agents of actions to try to change their living standards.”
The awards for the competition’s different categories went to the following filmmakers:
Lack of access to basic servicesWinner: “Prestes Maia” by Bianca Suyama of Brazil
Honorable mention: “Health among the Lower Urubamba Matsinguengas” by Henry Pilares Frisancho of Peru
Lack of access to institutionsWinner: “The mirage of a redemption” by Carlos Andres Grisales Tabares of Colombia
Honorable mention: “Posseiros” by Caio Chatagnier of Brazil
Lack of identification documentsWinner: “Gaspar” by Caio Chatagnier of Brazil
Exclusion from labor marketsWinner: “Urban Circus, Mexico City” by Jalil Rashid Graniel Espinosa of Mexico
Honorable mention: “Jorge” by Pedro Jimenez of Mexico
Alternative systems of social and political representationWinner: “Mirrors” by Lucrecia Mastrangelo of Argentina
Honorable mention: “Rolling down the street” by Ariana Chediak Roquim of Brazil
Substitutes for the established social orderWinner: “The Off Ramp” by Silvia Patricia Arispe Bazan of Peru
Honorable mention: “El Ceibo” by Andres Esteban Dunayevich of Argentina
Awards will be handed out in coming months in ceremonies to be held at the IDB country offices in the countries of the filmmakers. The videos can be seen at the Internet page created for the competition The Faces of Exclusion.