Virtual-real Space and
the Foundation of ABC

It was around 1995 that director of photography Walter Carvalho tells that he received an invitation to resume the project of an association of the class: “Lauro called a small group, in an attempt to resume the idea of the association, which we theoretically called an association, but that never materialized. He called about five people, I remember Antonio Luiz well, in a production company that no longer exists, in a house that was demolished at Pacheco Leão by a guy who called Frazão. We met there two or three times and after some time there were also some meetings at Lauro’s own house”, he says.

Although at that time the idea had not yet materialized, a short time later, in 1998, directors of photography Carlos Ebert and Hugo Kovensky sent an e-mail to a group of photographers that would finally result in the creation of ABC. Ebert reports that it was during an event held by Kodak Brasil, which in São Paulo was at Centro Cultural Vergueiro, that he had the idea of sending the e-mail that would result in the foundation of the association. “During the seminar, talking to Hugo Kovensky, I thought aloud: ‘Why don’t we take advantage of this new communication tool? Everyone in our area is connected to technology, practically everyone has the internet, why don’t we make an association, in the first instance, virtual?’ I thought that because the internet would eliminate our main difficulty: the physical meeting, which depended on the nature of our work. Kovensky thought the idea was good. There were also other colleagues present, whom I got the e-mail addresses from and I also had in mind especially Lauro and Affonso Beato. Kovensky and I first made an e-mail launching the suggestion, we sent it and there was a very good reception and the answers kept coming back”, remembers the cinematographer.

For Lauro Escorel, the e-mail they sent was in line with this desire of many years, which now saw the possibility of virtual existence. “As I recall, the email had 100% positive responses,” he said. People who received the first email recommended and invited professionals from all over the country to join the list that was beginning to grow and consolidate. To fulfill the desire to effectively found ABC and expand its operations to the real world, Escorel says that the next steps were to create the statute, elect the board and register the association. With the written statute and the elected board (with Carlos Ebert as president, Walter Carvalho as vice, Affonso Beato as secretary director and Renato Padovani as treasurer director), ABC was registered in 2000 and, in addition to the virtual space, started to act also in the “real” world.

Although it was initially designed to only aggregate professionals from the direction of photography, the need to include professionals from other areas of cinema was soon realized, which differentiates ABC from most associations of the department around the world. For the current president of the association, the sound technician Tide Borges, “nowadays, the exchange of information between the departments that carry out an audiovisual work is overvalued. One decision depends on others. ABC is a community in which this information circulates with greater speed and this is a very advanced form of organization. I think we have taken a step forward in relation to other associations”, she assesses.

The strengthening of this model was further reaffirmed with the election of the current board (biennium 7/2020 to 6/2022), which, in addition to Tide and Mustapha already mentioned, also has the director of photography Jacques Cheuiche as vice president and with director of photography Fernanda Tanaka as secretary director. Tide is the first professional not working in photography to assume the presidency of ABC, in addition to being the first woman to hold the position. The expansion of more representation from other areas, as well as the diversity of gender, race, sexuality and region, is one of the main projects of the current administration that has worked together with the Ethics Commission and the Inclusion Team to develop policies and changes that help in its consolidation, especially a proposal of a new statute for the association.

Prêmio ABC:
20 years

ABC Cinematography Week

Also as part of the goal of achieving the three objectives described above, the first Semana ABC took place in 2002. “When we started organizing the second Prêmio ABC, which would now take place in Rio de Janeiro, Affonso suggested that beyond continuing with the award event, we should also propose something related to the dissemination and sharing of experiences. And we incorporated the idea of the Semana ABC”, says Escorel. Beato adds that the inspiration came from an event he and Lauro attended in the United States, Cinematographer’s Day, organized by director of photography Luciano Tovoli, which became very popular at the Palm Springs Festival and brought together cinematography professionals from around the world.

Since then, Semana ABC has been incorporated into the audiovisual sector’s calendar as one of the important moments for exchanging knowledge and contact between professionals, students, companies and other institutions. Carlos Pacheco, current coordinator of the event, adds: “There was nothing like it in Brazil. Before, in order to discuss cinematography, we had to leave the country. There was no such space to discuss market issues, new technologies, new equipment. With the Week, ABC brought this into the Brazilian entertainment industry”.

The first edition took place at Instituto Moreira Salles, in Rio de Janeiro, and the Prêmio ABC ceremony was held at the Jockey Club Brasileiro. The 2002 Semana ABC program included panels on the relationship between cinematography and art direction, digital cinema, sound and post-production, themes that have always been present at the event ever since. For many years, the realization of the Week and Award was divided between Rio and São Paulo. The following year, in 2003, the Cinemateca Brasileira, as co-organizer, hosted the Semana ABC for the first time, in 2012 it became the official venue for this event.

Each year, the development of the Week and Award drew more attention from professionals, but also from companies and institutions linked to cinema and entertainment. In addition to the tables and lectures that have been held since the first editions, the event also started to promote the equipment and services fair, in which students and professionals can have access to new technologies. For Escorel, it is beautiful to see how the event and the award have grown and developed. He also reiterates that this is also due to the relationship with the supporting companies: “each support received generated and generates new support”, which are reflected in the quality of the programming that reinvents itself in each edition and seeks to bring current artistic and technical discussions about cinematography with the presence of national and international professionals.

On an article about the 20th anniversary of the association, director of photography Kika Cunha mentioned the event as the apex of ABC: “Each year there are more people participating, more employees, more companies showing their products and more big names giving lectures . I think ABC managed to establish itself as a training body for photographers and audiovisual people”. For her, and for most of the other people interviewed, the Semana ABC is one of the association’s main achievements, as it expands its strength of action both in relation to the market and education. In the words of director of photography Marcelo Trotta: “when we started making the Semana ABC, there was a leap to a place of recognition of excellence in the debate on trends and issues in the Brazilian audiovisual industry. We gained an educational vocation and today we organize a super professional and high level event, which is open to the public and has the support of sponsors and important entities. For us, this shows that there is great recognition of our staff and our activities”.

The director of photography Fernanda Tanaka, who is one of the event’s curators this year, also says that the Semana ABC events were an important part of her learning. “And evaluating the film community as a whole, I believe that, in addition to fostering technical discussions, bringing new technologies closer and faster, Semana ABC is unifying, where different professionals and students meet and exchange experiences, strengthening the area. Even giving visibility and worldwide insertion”, she says.

This question is also shared by Taís Nardi: “I’ve always kept up with Semana ABC since I was a student. I even wrote down everything I didn’t understand, to look it up later, but I think the event is mainly a meeting place”. As examples, the photographer lists two moments that occurred in the event that were important for her trajectory: the first is a panel on education where she rediscovered a teacher, which encouraged her to return to academia, do a master’s degree and, currently, a doctorate in which he studies poetics in the direction of photography at the Graduate Program in Audiovisual Media and Processes at ECA-USP. The second is the first panel on women in cinematography, in 2017, which made her reflect more on sexism and misogyny in audiovisual and helped position herself and recognize herself as a director of photography.

With experience in the world of theater, camera operator Nelson Kao was also able to develop part of his audiovisual training at Semana ABC, which also helped him open doors to the job market. In 2010, Kao started to help Lúcio Kodato in the production of the event, assembling equipment, operating cameras, among other functions. In addition to his various stories about the “behind the camera” of the event, he also remembers two moments in particular: the lectures with the director of photography John Bailey and José Murilo Carvalho, who at that time was the Coordinator of Digital Culture at the Ministry of Culture (MinC), which revealed the event’s concern in dealing not only specifically with cinematography, but with several other topics relevant to entertainment culture, adding new discussions and representatives.

For other areas of cinema, Semana ABC is also pointed out as an important moment of formation and exchange of experiences. As an example, art director Marcos Carvalheiro commented that the space that professionals in the field built and maintain within ABC was fundamental for the consolidation of the art direction profession: “I see as important milestones for our profession, here in Brazil, the Art Direction tables with important professionals of recognized international performance that we have carried out in the last 10 years at Semana ABC. These meetings ‘formed us and are shaping us’, as much of what we have advanced and have consolidated within the art department today is the result of these discussions that have been maturing us and opening up paths”.