“Geografia da Ausência” (Geography of Absence) is my new doc-series. Produced by RedTerra Studios for HBO (WBD), the series travel to Brazil’s distant countryside searching for stories of oppression, silence, resistance and struggle. In this first episode, in Minas Gerais, we could learn – through the eyes of still photographer Isis Medeiros – about the lives of people threatened by the toxic mud produced by the intense mining activity that goes on here for centuries. Mining for iron ore produces this deadly mud stored in precarious dams. Up to now, some of them fell apart, killing hundreds of innocent people.
Death and grief, “dam terrorism”, control and domination strategies… Faith and hope resist in a place that is historically characterized by greed and opulence. There we lived difficult days of listening and learning. Our team is led by executive producer & artistic director Gideon Boulting, with writer Douglas Vieira and photography director Dado Carlin. During these 12 days we could follow the toxic mud, mapping this ‘geography of destruction’, discovering human tragedies and losses.
