Cinemão Solar: project unites technology, sustainability and culture

Credit: Disclosure

By: Gabriel Murga – Lupa do Bem / Favela em Pauta

The Cinemão project, conceived by Cid César Augusto, was renewed and gained the reinforcement of solar energy, uniting technology, sustainability and culture in an innovative initiative, becoming the first outdoor cinema in the state of Rio de Janeiro powered by solar energy. In addition, the now Cinemão Solar is getting ready to celebrate, in 2022, ten years of exhibitions in the periphery of all regions of the capital of Rio de Janeiro.

The project structure was assembled in partnership with the French engineer David Bernad and has a 5-meter long photovoltaic generator, containing 10 solar panels, charge inverters and 10 lithium batteries.

The system was mounted on a trailer structure and is the off-grid type, which stores the energy produced by the plates in a set of batteries.

New horizons for Cinema

Cinemão Solar is currently sponsored by ViaRio, through the Municipal Culture Incentive Law – ISS Law, and has the support of the City Hall of Rio de Janeiro and the Municipal Secretary of Culture. The project operates in the entire production chain of cinema, from film production to the distribution and exhibition of contents.

When it comes to the future of the initiative, which has become even more sustainable due to the change in its energy matrix, Cinemão is preparing great news for the next year, with sustainability and art as the central axis.

Check out below the interview with Cid César Augusto, creator of the project:

Lupa do Bem: In a few months, the project that was born Cinemão and is now Solar will complete ten years “occupying public and popular spaces with Brazilian cinema through a mobile structure”, as we recently read in an article by you. What assessment do you make of these ten years of Cinemão?

Cinemão emerged at a time when the city was going through a period of transformation, especially the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, with the implementation of that program called UPP (Pacifying Police Unit). A very symbolic image of these military occupations, and a symbol here in the city, was the Caveirão, a black and armored police vehicle widely used in operations in these territories. 

So, Cinemão emerges as a kind of political act by me and my companions, as workers in the audiovisual industry, pointing to a model of territorial occupation of communities, different from the military occupation. The only thing from the state that gets to these territories of the city. That’s where Cinemão was born. 

At first, we called it the Vehicle of Tactical Occupation of Culture. It was a 1970 Rural Ford, adapted to be the projection car. It’s a project that was born that way, and I didn’t even expect it to have much continuity. [Now] it will turn ten years old, leading a process of democratization of Brazilian cinema in Rio de Janeiro, above all a process of forming an audience for national cinema. 

I don’t think of any other project that has done more occupancy actions like the exhibition of films, especially in our format with a super structure, an inflatable screen and a powerful sound system. And each year is a battle to get partners, sponsors, because without sponsorship, it can’t work. 

We started the first actions selling t-shirts, in that model of collective financing, and soon we started to operate with resources of direct promotion, indirect promotion, through incentive laws and direct sponsorship. In our case, there is always the interest of both companies and the state itself, at the municipal, state and federal levels, in strengthening these actions of ours, which are considered affirmative.

Why was the concern with sustainability put into practice?

As I said, we are the protagonists of this process of democratization of cinema. So, over these years, we have consolidated several partnerships due to the results presented by our audience formation project.

Now, we are in a new phase, in a current agenda where climate issues are debated a lot. We started the transformation of our project to the most sustainable model.

Do you believe that the option for solar energy and the occupation of public space through the audiovisual reflects your trajectory as a journalist and filmmaker?

We developed our own technology, a photovoltaic solar generator that supplies our entire projection system. And, now preparing for the next year, when we complete 10 years of activity and also the year that celebrates 30 years of the ECO-92 that the city of Rio de Janeiro hosted, we are preparing a set of actions to celebrate these agreements signed by the weather. [We are going to use] cinema as a tool to point out those things that are fundamental, [such as] sustainable development, especially the conscious use of energy.

Regarding the concern for the environment, this was our issue, which we needed to adapt to the needs of our time. So the film industry, the culture industry, are pulsating and [become] clean industries. So, Cinemão ends up being a mirror of our area.

How can the peripheries of different regions of the country, with nearby scenarios and audiences, be inspired by Cinemão Solar?

I would very much like Cinemão not to be an isolated project, that it even becomes a public policy. We try to influence public managers with our results so that, in fact, this becomes a good inspiration so that other places can also have a chance.

For me, as a cinema worker, the more screens spread across the city – especially at a time when cinemas are closing directly – in every country or every city, would be a great dream come true.

What are the plans to celebrate these ten years of the project? And the plans for the next decade? 

To celebrate these next ten years, we are launching Cinemão Eco 2022, our 10-year celebration project. We also prepare a film with all our archival material, called “Cinemão – a decade of Rio”, which will not only tell our story, our love of cinema and all our adventures, [but also show] demands of all kinds. Basically, for the next year, we expect to have intense activities, because we are still going through a pandemic and it seems to be the end. But during the pandemic, we didn’t stand still either.

While all movie theaters in the country closed, all street event activities were banned, we, along with RioFilme, adapted the project for something called “Cinema nas Janelas”, which had international repercussions. Several countries talked about this action that we did in the city.

We set up a cinema structure in housing projects so that the population, at that moment of lockdown, could watch Brazilian cinema through the windows. So, we are going through this moment now, and our sector was the most affected. It was the first to stop and the last to return. We hope that the coming year is very intense, especially to celebrate life.