Black Women from the Periphery Collective creates a project for the first public movie theater in the favela of Coroadinho, in Maranhão

Credit: Disclosure

By: Renato Silva – Lupa do Bem / Favela em Pauta

“When a black woman advances, she never advances alone, but together with the community”, thus Julianna Costa, the Jú do Coroadinho, begins to present the achievements of the Black Women Collective of the Periphery when they created Cine Coroadinho, which popularizes access to the cinema in the favela of Coroadinho, on the outskirts of São Luís do Maranhão.

Created just 4 years ago, Black Women Collective of the Periphery had the project for a public cinema approved at the end of 2021, and soon the members began touring the corners of the favela with monthly or fortnightly activities with the exhibition of documentaries and themed films for children and the general public of Coroadinho.

According to information from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, from 2011, on subnormal agglomerations, the Coroadinho neighborhood – or favela do Coroadinho – is the fourth largest favela in Brazil, with a population of 53,945 people. With these indices, Coroadinho was also identified as the largest favela in the entire North-Northeast.

And it is also based on this information that Jú do Coroadinho says that the motivations for initiatives come from social and racial inequality.

“We are a very black community and many strong women who are always there in the struggle together with the collective of black women. And cinema was something that always impacted me, in my heart, because the first time I took my mother (Rosângela Costa, 56) to the cinema, she was forty-eight years old, I was in my first job and my mother always talked a lot about the matter of her knowing, she had never been in a movie theater. And I began to realize that this was denied to us, who live in favelas, black and poor people as well”, says Julianna, who goes on to explain why there is no access to culture in the favela.

“This access is denied because usually movie theaters are in malls, on the other side of the bridge. It is quite far away and it is also expensive to pay for food, you have to have adequate clothes”, says the activist.

Through a public notice, the Collective saw the chance to potentiate dreams in the favela through culture. “We are very happy to be able to talk about cinema, to be able to say that six years later we have a guarantee that we will manage to change some realities, we will manage to change this conception of cinema, it is concentrated in elitist places, and very focused on you need to fit into a pattern to be able to access that space, which should be public and is not. So, when I talk about cinema, I talk a lot about equality. I hope it’s the most incredible thing we’re going to do, because even a snack like this, people don’t need to worry, they just need to be there willing to experience the moment, the culture and understand everything”, he adds.

Cine Coroadinho and “a world of possibilities”

The Black Women Collective of the Periphery, created in 2018, has already reached more than two thousand people with various cultural activities, from movie screenings, to events like Brega Funk, Tambor de Crioula, the Gaymado – dodgeball sports activity with gay practitioners and LGBTQIA+ in general, conversation circles and affective listening, among many other actions beyond culture. All the collective’s actions are free and organized in public squares.

When thinking about the effects of the diffusion of culture, Jú do Coroadinho expresses the dream of following, like the ancestors, opening the way for a lighter and more prosperous future for the favela. “I hope that the next generations suffer less, that they have a path of opportunity, you know? That they can dream, that they can earn money from culture, event production, technology and cinema. Because sometimes people look at us with a very underemployed look, you know? And we are so powerful”, he concludes.

How to accompany and support the Black Women of the Periphery Collective

To follow the work of Collective and other news from Cine Coroadinho, just follow the project’s profile on instagram. The launch of the physical room, which will be inaugurated at the headquarters of Black Women of the Periphery Collective, in Coroadinho, is scheduled for the third week of May.