The map is not
the territory
A road trip that exceeds the landscape of a slightly wavy plain, where the speed of time reveals a look on discovery, and an apparent homogeneity unveils Uruguay´s great diversity.
Two young filmmakers in a blue 70s Beetle travel from town to town in the Uruguayan land, exploring the various regions and the people who live in them. In their baggage, the cameras, sound equipment and the inexorable need of deep connection.
The spectator hops in the car and joins the trip, establishing its own connections, senses, understanding and living every landscape and story in that journey. Through each person’s tale, you get the chance to discover a unique personal universe which gives shape to that territory named after a river.
A “no place” frozen in time, where essential questions get answered. What is happiness? Love, death, sadness, joy… Uruguayans reveal themselves in front of the camera, building a fabric of what it means to be part of this huge little country.
Take me home
After 5 years traveling the world with almost no contact, Noé Le Forestier and Renzo Lettieri meet again in Uruguay in the middle of a pandemic. They share a mutual desire: to rediscover their country through new connections and meanings.
Both as makers of a humanistic documentary and as road trip characters, Renzo and Noé guide us in different ways through their particular look.
Noé Le Forestier
Born in Maldonado, rooted in France, he studied Communication Sciences at the University of Paris VIII, where he specialized in audiovisual writing. He studied Art History at the Louvre School in Paris and is currently pursuing a Masters in Documentary Film at the University of Bordeaux Montaigne.
Passionate about sociology and philosophy, he developed throughout his academic career the need to understand the human being in all its forms, exploring in theory and practice his desire to understand society, which he applied in his end-of-year documentary studies, "Portraits du Garrit", directed alongside Pierre Bertrand.
He lived most of his life in Brazil and spent the last few years in France making several trips to Europe. After feeding his curiosity to know different cultures, he returned to his native country with an insatiable thirst to reconnect with its inhabitants.
Renzo Lettieri
Photographer and filmmaker born in Montevideo. He studied visual arts and holds degrees in camera assistance at UCF and photography at FCU. He made several short films depicting nature and printed many of his works to display them. He currently has an audiovisual production company specializing in nature and tourism where he applies his talent in artistic direction and aerial shots.
Renzo, a tireless traveler, has spent the last few years exploring the depths of Asia, from the jungles of Borneo to the mythical islands of Indonesia, carrying out photographic projects in which he immortalized landscapes and wild animals.
He is an active member of the Socobiome where he has cultivated a vast knowledge of the local fauna, thus acquiring great sensitivity in depicting animals in their natural environment.
Every face
a poem
In the interviews, the filmmakers establish a relationship of security and naturalness, seeking to put the interviewee in a state of almost trance. The reflection of the lens that speaks to the soul. This ends up developing an intimacy that brings viewers inside the film, with the feeling of being sitting together with the interviewees, listening to their secrets and their feelings.
Road trip baggage
In the interviews, a black neutral background. Photography portrays the individual´s whole essence, focusing on the eyes expressions. Not white, not yellow. Color light balance is the real one, with a hint of aesthetic so as to show a non-filtered tale, the truth.
Music is in the landscape
Music is one of the main points in this project. It starts with a playlist in the Beetle and it then goes deeper into the feelings and tales of the interviewees. Instead of simply guiding the spectator, it plays a special role in intensifying the feel. Music works as an expression with a strong identity, a connection with the discovery and learning of the road. For each song a collaboration; the approach is to work with Uruguayan musicians in order to build one more meaningful layer to this search.
Beginning of the road trip: march 2022
Regions: litoral norte, litoral sul, metropolitana, centro, noroeste e este
Filming time: 8 months
Post-production time: 4 months
Project Completion Forecast: march 2023
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Genre: documentary
Length: 1h30
Annette
Bittencourt
The three movie co-producers expect to bring the entire world along on this journey around Uruguay. Through their foreign look and vast experience in international productions, the team embarks in the exploration of the numerous possibilities and opportunities in this ascending film market in the country.
Co-production
Born in Porto Alegre with a degree in Social Communication from UFRGS University. She worked as Executive Producer in various production companies, collaborating with the best publicity directors in Brazil. In 1991, Annette founded a production company called Zeppelin Filmes. In her 25 years of activity, she produced content, publicitary movies and fiction projects to big international clients. She now lives in Uruguay where she has been exploring new connections.
Tyrone
Rodovalho
Born in Goianina, a Brazilian city located in the central region. In his adolescence, he moved to Porto Alegre where he earned a degree from ESPM RS (Adverstising and Marketing Higher Education School) in Social Communication, specialized in Advertising and Ads. First Assistant Director to director Fred Luz, he was a team member of numerous production companies like Capsula Films, Zeppelin Films and O2 Films, producing publicity campaigns nationally and internationally.
For almost 2 years, he was a core member of Concept (responsible for creating, developing and producing content) at EYXO - Strategies for Innovation, a company focused on digital formats. Since the beginning of the pandemic, he has been a resident in Uruguay where he took the New York Film Academy in the production area.
Fred
Luz
Fred Luz is a director, but above all, he is a storyteller. If you live in Latin America you have probably seen something he has made. Fred started his career in southern Brazil and after 20 years’ experience he now works at O2 Films, one of the biggest production companies in the world.
Throughout his career, Fred has already filmed in countries like the USA, Netherlands, Ireland, South Africa, Philippines, India, Spain, and more. He has filmed and created for Johnson & Johnson, Nivea, Coca-Cola, Itaú, Santander, Volvic, Natura, Betfair and Electrolux. Fred is also a university professor. His focus today is to create projects that make sense in order to change the world.
Retratos del Uruguay is generating community engagement and growth in social media. What was expected to be a simple trial, ended up in an incredible organic process of interactivity. With short snippets from the interviews and stories through pictures and text, the media has quickly reached almost a MILLION viewers. That is why the focus on digital environment will be through the interaction with the users. They will be part of the process. The team will work in order to bring people together and make them part of this adventure by tracing routes and guiding part of the journey.
Better than the sum
of its parts
For 29 days between June and July 2021, Renzo and Noé had the first experience of this adventure. It worked as a trial with the idea of understanding how to make a bigger road trip. On this trip, they visited three of Uruguay’s nineteen regions.
The visual material used for this presentation is based on the content generated during that period of time.
Today, the team is in the financing phase, looking to establish connections in order to take the next steps.
Where are we in this journey right now?
In a globalized world, it is beyond reason the importance of what is local. Rediscovering human interconnection among different cultures is what pushes Retratos del Uruguay project to cross frontiers and become the voice of this idea.
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Participation in festivals in that area is one of the distribution strategies. Here are some festivals where this voice can make a big noise:
Documentary Edge Festival - Auckland / New Zealand
DocsBarcelona International Documentary Film Festival - Spain / Barcelona
Film Festival Beyond Borders - Kastellorizo / Grécia
Millenium Documentary Film Festival - Bruxelles / Bélgica
Etats Généraux du Film Documentaire - Lussas / France
FIPADOC - Festival International Documentaire - Biarritz / France
Latino Docs - Toulouse / France
Escales Documentaires - La Rochelle / France
Les Étoiles du documentaire - Paris / France
DocBsAs - Doc Buenos Aires / Argentina
Festival Internacional de Cine Documental de la Ciudad de México - México
É Tudo Verdade Festival Internacional de Documentários - São Paulo / Brasil
