Because We Were Born: Jean Pierre Duret at Cine Lumiere
Always excited to be at the Cine Lumiere at the Institut Francais, where the Festival kicked off with Because We Were Born by Jean Pierre Duret a 90-minute fly-on-the-wall (or the eye of dead cow in some scenes) documentary about two boys, Cocada and Nego, living in one of the poorest favelas of Brazil, hanging out in truck stops to imagine their future and try and eat, before heading home to a shack full of siblings or a night in the cab of an abandoned truck. Sitting in the large and comfortable Lumiere seats and watching their utterly uncomfortable lives – one of the boys tells his truck-driver patron he’d rather take poison than continue living a life so hard – was a reminder of the real issues documentary-makers seek out and the reaction they possibly seek to cause; one of astonished and impotent sympathy.
After the film, audience members were enthused about the Festival, making good use of the promotional material on offer to choose their next viewing. One of the most exciting features of a festival such as the LIDF is the ability for cinema-goers to pick and choose their way through a programme full of little gems and take a journey to places they never expected to go, such as the memorable and raw lives of two little boys in Brazil.
