Between Walls in Favelas - Action / Distribution

This project arose as a response to a recent trip to Brazil with Brian Maguire and a group of students and staff from the NCAD, Fine Art Department, Dublin, Ireland. While attending the World Social Forum 2005 in Porto Allegre, we were present at the projection of a recently completed documentary that concerned the abuses suffered by the inhabitants of Rio's favelas by the military police, in particular the murder of unarmed children. When the projection ended the mothers of murdered children, many of whom had taken part in the documentary gathered to speak of their experiences and of their struggle for justice. It was a powerful and affecting evening. As the meeting ended many of us who attended purchased copies of their documentary on VHS tape. The video signal, having been encoded with the American NTSC signal, is unviewable on most European video players, so I undertook to transfer the VHS tape to PAL (the European video signal standard) and make it available as a DVD.

I have decided to use this opportunity to create an art action entitled: 'Between Walls In Favelas - Action / Distribution'

The aim of which is to distribute the Documentary "Between Walls In Favelas" amongst all those of us who attended the screening, and amongst my immediate community of artists in Dublin, one each on an individual DVD disc for them to keep at no cost. In an effort to create a series of transactions through which discussion of our experiences in Brazil might be communicated to our contemporaries who were not present and to contribute to the radicalisation of that discourse, as demanded by the injustices we witnessed, certain conditions for receipt of a copy of the documentary are required.

1. Each recipient of a DVD is obliged to make one DVD copy of the disc and to give this copy to another person who they feel would be interested in the documentary. Further, they must oblige that person to make a copy of their DVD and to further distribute that with the same obligations attached.

2. Each recipient must also agree to email or phone myself when a copy has been made and passed on to let me know, and to provide contact details of the person it has been passed to.

3. Any assistance that may be provided in the copying of DVD's will be willingly provided by myself, short of actually copying the DVD for the recipient.

Note: This project is in no way intended to infringe copyright. It does not, as it's aim, set out to infringe the rights of any copyright holder. Rather it aims to distribute in a measured way, the experience of viewing 'Between Walls in Favelas' on the night we viewed it, provoking thought and discussion along the way. All recipients of the copied DVD's are encouraged to purchase a licensed copy of the documentary 'Between Walls in Favelas' if they have not done so from the German Brazilian co-production of AK KRAAK (Berlin), aTraVer and TV Comunitaria Tagerela (Rio) online at http://akkraak.squat.net/enaktuell.htm.

AK KRAAK have been contacted in relation to the above. They fully endorsed this project and wished it all the best. They say that anything that spreads the word and helps to distribute their message is welcome. For further information contact: suse at squat dot net