Screening of 101 films, in-person and online sessions, a workshop, exhibitions and concerts make up the free, all-ages programme, from March 9 to 19 in Videira-SC
The 4th edition of the Chica Pelega Film Festival – Contemporary Migrations brings an intense free programme over 10 days to Videira, in the Meio-Oeste region of Santa Catarina, at the Euclides da Cunha Library, in the city center, next to historical and tourist sites such as the Coreto Square, the Grape Museum and the Mother Church. In all, 101 films from 17 Brazilian states and 22 countries will be screened, including Santa Catarina productions and world premieres.
The Festival brings together films that explore the experiences of people on the move, their trajectories, challenges and cultural contributions, in a plural look at contemporary migrations and their human and social implications, bringing the audience closer to stories that reflect diverse and current realities. Not only in the themes: migrants took part in the curatorship of the selected films and will be present in the mediation of special sessions and in various programme activities, including a workshop, an exhibition and as audience.
The sessions take place in the morning, afternoon and evening, screening short and feature films of fiction, documentary and animation. The opening will be in the library’s Cinema Room on the 9th, Monday, at 7 p.m., with the screening of the guest short Kagpó Jó (The Origin), directed by Jucelino Senei Filho, an animation made by a Laklãnõ/Xokleng and Kaingang indigenous team, making its world premiere.
The Chica Pelega Film Festival is an initiative of VMS Produção and Pupilo Digital with the support of the Videira City Hall and is part of the city’s anniversary programme. A project awarded by the 2023 Catarinense Cinema Award, carried out with funds from the Federal Government and the Paulo Gustavo Cultural Emergency Law, through the Catarinense Culture Foundation.
This 4th edition received a record 2,389 submissions. Reflecting the relevant central theme, migration, the selected films address different realities and similarities with Brazil, and come from a great diversity of countries, among productions and co-productions: Germany, Australia, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Spain, France, Honduras, Indonesia, Lebanon, Macedonia, Mexico, Palestine, Peru, Portugal, Qatar, Switzerland, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
One of the highlights is the large number of premieres. Almost a third of the films (29) will have their first screening in South America and Brazil, and among those world-premiering at the Chica Pelega Festival are Ora e Trabalha, by Federico Bonani, and Dentre Norte e Nordeste, by Andrea Mendonça.
The programme on Sunday, the 15th, at 6 p.m., will also feature a special open-air session, in the city hall parking lot, of the guest film Betânia, by Marcelo Botta, a production from Maranhão, aimed at the traditional Maranhão community of Videira. The session will be mediated by Haitian curators Wisnel Joseph and Charlot Jn Charles, who took part in the film selection, and will be followed by the screening of Efapi Boul, by Daniela Farina and João Fernando Lucas, about the football team of Haitian immigrants in Chapecó.
There will also be special sessions for children of migrants, for Youth and Adult Education (EJA) classes made up of migrants, and sessions for the municipality’s senior groups.
In this 4th edition, the films will be screened in five categories:
Contemporary Migrations (Shorts and Features), with 32 films whose theme is migration in Brazil and the world, highlighting challenges of adaptation, belonging and cultural transformation; Student, made up of 16 films produced in pedagogical activities, inside or outside school; Childhoods on Screen, with 28 films that present the perspectives, experiences and sensibilities of children and teenagers; Contestado, in which three features that address the revolts of the First Republic will be screened, with special focus on the Contestado War (1912–1916), Beira: além das margens do Rio Uruguai, by Daniela Farina, Pedaço de Chão, by Elias de Lima, and Acordo com Lampião? Só na boca do fuzil!, by Moacir Assunção; and Catarinense, made up of 14 films, produced in Itajaí, Garopaba, Jaraguá do Sul, Florianópolis, Piçarras, Joinville and Maravilha.
Audiences across the country will also be able to watch the films online between March 9 and April 9 on the play.pupilo.tv.br platform.
The first edition of the Chica Pelega Festival, which honors the historical figure Chica Pelega, a caboclo leader and combatant of the Contestado War, was held in Joaçaba in 2021. The following year, it expanded to Caçador, Campos Novos, Curitibanos, Timbó Grande and Fraiburgo, and in 2023 it reached the remaining quilombo communities of Invernada dos Negros and Campo dos Poli and the cities of Fraiburgo, Capinzal, Monte Carlo and Campos Novos. Since 2021, there have been 101 film sessions, reaching an audience of 7,000 people.
“The 4th edition is the realization of a dream: to turn a countryside town into a great window to the world. This year, we expanded the programme to more than double the previous editions, consolidating the Festival as an even more powerful space of circulation and encounter. There will be 10 days of in-person events and 30 days of online screening, ensuring that, even from the countryside, all the films can also be seen by the connected audience of different regions. In addition, we will hold workshops and, for the first time, we managed to premiere some of the films in the programme,” says Rudolfo Auffinger, curator of the Festival.
Children’s sessions
Mornings and afternoons are children’s matinees at the Chica Pelega Festival, with sessions aimed at children from preschool to high school teenagers, with free popcorn distribution. In the first week, the Festival welcomes schools from the municipality. For the second week, school bookings are still open, via the email producao@chicapelega.com.br.
The children will select the best films, which will receive the Young Critics trophy.
Exhibitions
Cinema Mulher: correntes e confluências do cinema catarina – an interactive exhibition that invites the public to navigate the history of Santa Catarina cinema through the trajectory of women. Interactive devices, optical toys and educational games invite active participation, allowing each visitor to discover and experience processes of creation, perception and projection of moving images. Analog cinema is also celebrated with Super 8mm and 16mm projections, and other historical cinema equipment, revealing the technologies and practices of production and exhibition that shaped cinema over time.
The curatorship and production are by Blenda Trindade, Fernanda Ozório and Gabi Bresola, based on the research “Realizadoras do cinema em SC: pioneirismos” (a project conceived by Volo Filmes and carried out in 2025 by Ally Collaço, Blenda Trindade, Fernanda Ozório, Gabi Bresola and Juliano Nunes).
A casa é um mar cheio de portos – A multimedia exhibition that invites you to dive into the trajectories of those who crossed borders to make Chapecó their new home. Through intimate video-letters, three immigrants share the challenges in the process of making a home in Brazil. In addition to writing, they chose how they would like to be portrayed in photography, how they would like to be seen and remembered by the family that stayed in their country of origin.
In this moving work, the public also takes on the role of artist and is invited to answer letters, leaving their own message in a digital gallery, in a dialogue between those who arrived and those who were already here, turning the exhibition into a living, collective construction.
Film Workshop – O minuto que foi
An intensive audiovisual creation experience led by Cuban filmmaker Yasser Socarrás, aimed at migrants aged 14 and over. Held on 03/14, at the Euclides da Cunha Library, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., in partnership with the Videira Department of Social Assistance.
Participants will experience in practice the main stages of audiovisual production, from the idea to the script, image and sound capture and organization of the material, with the collective production of a short film at the end. The proposal is to experiment with cinema as a tool of expression, creating a film from the participants’ experiences, memories, dreams and perceptions about displacement, belonging and the future.
Yasser S. González is an audiovisual filmmaker, teacher and researcher, a graduate of the Higher Institute of Art (Cuba) and holds a master’s degree in Social Anthropology from UFSC. He works as a producer, screenwriter and director at Filmes de Apartamento.
Concerts
To strengthen the bonds between people who came from other countries or regions and live in Videira, the Festival holds the Migration Festival, on Sunday the 15th, starting at 4 p.m., at Bar do Melleck, with a Contestado-related concert followed by a film screening at 7 p.m. Jorge Gonçalves and Igor Manfroi perform songs from their album “Conversa de Boi,” bringing together songbooks, stories and the poetry of the region.
Check the full programme on the website https://chicapelega.com.br/ and on Instagram and Facebook @mostra.chicapelega.
SERVICE
4th Chica Pelega Film Festival
DATE: March 9 to 19
VENUE: Euclides da Cunha Library (R. Campos Novos, 135 – Matriz, Videira – SC)
ONLINE FESTIVAL: March 9 to April 9 on play.pupilo.tv.br
FREE PROGRAMME
More information:
Rudolfo Auffinger (Pupilo) – 21 967078494
Communications – Barbara Pettres 48 99926-6429
