{"id":37930,"date":"2017-08-08T09:06:23","date_gmt":"2017-08-08T12:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=37930"},"modified":"2025-08-07T12:07:05","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T15:07:05","slug":"new-film-trajetos-tells-everyday-stories-of-love-hardship-and-reflection-on-rios-long-bus-routes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=37930","title":{"rendered":"New Film, ‘Trajetos,’ Tells Everyday Stories of Love, Hardship and Reflection on Rio’s Long Bus Routes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Trajetos <\/em>(Routes)<\/em>, a film produced by Rio de Janeiro-based audiovisual collective Canal Pl\u00e1<\/a>, will premier this Saturday August 12 at 8pm<\/a>\u00a0in Nova Igua\u00e7u<\/a> in the Pra\u00e7a dos Direitos Humanos (Human Rights Square). The film uses previously unedited footage from the YouTube series by the same name<\/a>, which features six vignettes that explore the role of public transportation<\/a> in the lives of residents of Greater Rio<\/a>, from Rio’s North Zone<\/a> and the Baixada Fluminense<\/a> to Niter\u00f3i<\/a>. Unlike the web series, the film will not be available online. The screening will be hosted by CineClub Buraco do Get\u00falio<\/a>, a film club dedicated to screening short films and hosting cultural events in Nova Igua\u00e7u, a municipality in Rio’s Baixada Fluminense<\/a> suburbs.<\/p>\n

\"Trajetos<\/a><\/p>\n

Canal Pl\u00e1\u2019s tagline is \u201cproducing memory,\u201d and given the hours a day residents experience commuting\u2014metropolitan Rio has some of the worst indices of urban mobility in Brazil<\/a>\u2014the stories captured in Trajetos<\/em>\u00a0show that worthwhile memories are often produced in the most mundane of places. One of the “road series” web episodes, \u201cMesquita x Central do Brasil<\/a>,\u201d features a young woman and man from Mesquita<\/a> that would often see each other on this particular line. At first too shy to speak to one another, they eventually ended up starting a relationship and getting married after finally breaking the ice on the bus.<\/p>\n

\"Trajetos<\/a><\/p>\n

The film\u2019s director and Canal Pl\u00e1\u2019s founder, Jos\u00e9 Alsanne, grew up in Nova Igua\u00e7u. \u201cFilming inside the buses that circulate throughout these cities was an idea that we\u2019ve had since 2015, when Canal Pl\u00e1 began<\/a>,\u201d said Alsanne in the film\u2019s press release. \u201cI spent many years of my life losing six hours a day commuting [to university at the Pontifical Catholic University, PUC] and this experience motivated me to tell these stories. More than just talking about urban mobility and its deficiencies, we wanted to present stories and the relationships that exist [on public transportation]. How do people deal with this daily stress and what are the contradictions at play in the affective relationships that people create on their bus or train line? This is what we sought out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The web series began with calls for stories on Canal Pl\u00e1\u2019s Facebook page<\/a>. They received so many that it was difficult to choose just six stories to tell. The film and web series pass through five cities in Greater Rio, four bus lines (one within Rio\u2019s city limits and another within Duque de Caxias<\/a> and two inter-municipal buses), one train line (the Japeri<\/a> line from the Nova Igua\u00e7u neighborhood of Austin to Central do Brasil train station), and one daily bicycle commute within Niter\u00f3i followed by a ferry ride,<\/a> giving a sense of the multiple ways that residents move through and experience the metropolitan region.<\/p>\n

\"Trajetos<\/a><\/p>\n

Along with stories of romance, many of the protagonists use their time in transit, which like Alsanne himself can be up to six hours a day, to chat with other commuters and bus drivers, to write poetry and raps, or reflect on a number of issues they face from racism to transphobia<\/a> to obesity<\/a>. This mirrors Canal Pl\u00e1\u2019s own mission “to bring to spectators an awareness of issues, realities, and demands from groups and social causes that have historically been ignored by the mainstream media due to a lack of interest, and principally, for the editorial line of many of these print and television outlets.”<\/p>\n

\"Trajetos<\/a><\/p>\n

Public transportation makes many of these social stigmas even more acute, as it accentuates the inequalities of metropolitan Rio. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s by bus that I end up gaining access to things that I don\u2019t have here. And this is very painful, you know,\u201d explains Lidi de Oliveira,<\/a> who takes the bus from Parque Paulista in Duque de Caxias<\/a> to Central do Brasil. \u201cThe bus for me very much symbolizes the separation between these territories, but it is also the bridge between them. A bridge that is falling apart, that needs to be mended in places, but it\u2019s a bridge that exists and we\u2019re filling the gaps to form these bridges between territories.”<\/p>\n

\"Trajetos<\/a><\/p>\n

Watch a trailer of the\u00a0Trajetos <\/em>web series\u00a0which features a rap verse from Adrielle Vieira as she rides the Japeri train line from Austin to Central do Brasil:<\/h3>\n