Fatores de Risco [português]
As the debate on climate change intensifies, the dispute of narratives also grows in both online and offline spaces. Many dominant lenses present a future based on technological solutions and equivalences that erase differences, multiplicities, and ways of life. However, the power structures and hierarchies that contribute to climate change and environmental degradation are often overlooked. At the same time, forms of disruption and obstacles multiply in the lives of those who speak about the environment from this perspective.
Awardee Project on Creative Media Awards / Mozilla Foundation (2023)
The expression ‘climate change’ has entered the agenda, but who can speak and what can be said is another story.
The starting point is Brazil, but the context is transnational. Risk Factors highlights the challenges faced by women researchers and students, as well as gender and sexual dissidents, in Brazilian universities as they navigate their work on socio-environmental conflicts. This is a project made about and by women and queer people.
Featuring a non-linear narrative, the film/platform follows the stories of five women scholars and students that address climate misinformation, land and territorial defense, women’s networks in the Amazon, attack on multiple livelihoods, and transnational green colonialism, among other topics. They come from diverse backgrounds and trajectories (full bios below), including Indigenous leaders in the Brazilian Amazon and references in the fight against institutional racism.
Disruption/Interruption is a cut; it is something that impedes a passage, a flow, an energetic current, an idea.
This webdoc understands both risk and academic freedom in a broader and intersectional sense, starting from the obstacles faced by some people to enter and remain in universities, through many facets of racism, sexism, and LGBTQ discrimination, funding cuts, direct persecution, and other barriers.
What does risk mean? Why does their work face so many interruptions?
If you thought about the idea of vulnerability, the flow of this story and investigation is exactly the opposite. The powerful and disruptive perspectives they bring do not fit into carbon equivalence calculations and easy universal forms of environmental compensation. They show that the starting points of this story are different.
Supporters:
Throughout its various phases, the project received support from Scholars at Risk, the Creative Media Awards, and the Green Screen Catalyst Fund. It is essential to emphasize, however, that the primary dedication and support for the project came from independent and autonomous energy throughout the entire process.
Full list of the interviewees
Auricélia Arapiuns is an Indigenous leader, a law student at the Federal University of Western Pará (UFOPA), and a reference in the fight for women’s rights in the Amazon and throughout the country. She is also a member of the Deliberative Council of Coiab Amazonia.
Vandria Borari, an Indigenous leader of the Borari people, is a ceramic artist and a Bachelor of Law. She is part of the Indigenous Women’s Musical Collective As Karuanas and the Borari Indigenous Association Kuxiimawara of the Borari Territory in Alter do Chão.
Marcela Vecchione-Goncalves is a teacher and activist researcher based in Belém, Pará, Brazil, where she is part of the Center for Advanced Amazon Studies at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA) and coordinates the Research Group ReExisTerra. Marcela works collectively in popular education with groups that fight for and resist on behalf of the land, especially those led by women
Denise Oliveira e Silva Deputy Director of the Brasília Regional Management at Fiocruz, she is a Senior Researcher in Public Health. With a master’s in Food Science (University of Ghent) and Public Health (National School of Public Health), as well as a PhD in Health Sciences (University of Brasília) and a postdoctoral degree in Food Anthropology (Centre Edgar Morin, Paris), she has extensive experience in public policies related to food and nutrition. She has been a lecturer since 1987, coordinates projects on food heritage, and is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Food and Culture of the Americas.
Rose Marie Santini is a professor at the School of Communication at UFRJ, teaching at the undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels. She is a researcher in the European VOX-Pol network, focused on online political extremism. As the founder and director of Netlab, she studies the phenomenon of misinformation in Brazil and worldwide. With expertise in Communication and Internet Studies, her topics include algorithmic curation, social media manipulation, and computational propaganda. She is the author of the books “The Algorithm of Taste” and leads research projects on misinformation and climate policies in Brazil.
Team behind the cameras
Camila Nobrega is a feminist queer transmedia Brazilian journalist and academic researcher based between Brazil and Germany. With focus on investigations about social-environmental conflicts and megaprojects from decolonial feminist and queer lenses, her work fosters connections between journalism, academia, and documentary transmedia formats from collective processes. Researcher and lecturer in universities in Germany and Austria. Founder of Beyond the Green project.
Kelly Saura is a visual artist, designer, and cultural producer. She develops and collaborates on projects involving art, technology, education, and socio-environmental justice. In 2020, she received the DIPR Fund / Impact Producer award from the Doc Society (UK/USA) for the projects P14311 and Aurora64 (film and book, by Diego Di Niglio). As a programmer, she worked at Mercado Macchi – Chiloé Arts Fair (Chile) in 2024, and at LabicBR – Ibero-American Laboratory for Citizen Innovation (Brazil) in 2016. Since 2021, Kelly has been working on projects for the Beyond the Green Laboratory. Currently, she collaborates with Kuirme Collective and Trasdej Project.
Noga Enbar: With over a decade of experience, Noga is a seasoned lead UX/UI designer and an artist with a unique blend of skills, including a background in front-end development. She is the co-founder of a digital agency in the UK specializing in tech-for-good projects, and her collaborative efforts have extended to numerous NGOs, Art projects, startups and others. She is the lead designer at her agency Fusion Journey. She is committed to mentoring the next generation of designers and remains passionate about the entire design process, from inception to completion and beyond.
Lívia Goulart: They are a queer audiovisual editor and have been active in the post-production market since 2010. They have edited documentary projects for TV and cinema, including the special “Falas Negras” (TV Globo), the documentary miniseries “O Enigma da Energia Escura” (Lab Fantasma/GNT), hosted by Emicida, and “O Som do Rio” (YouTube). They also worked on the GloboPlay original docu-reality “Segura essa Pose,” which explores the ballroom scene in Rio de Janeiro, and the feature film “Funk Favela.” They participated in the jury for the editing award at the 29th International Documentary Festival “É Tudo Verdade” and the IV BIS – Biennial of Sound Cinema. They are a member of APAN – Association of Black Audiovisual Professionals and edt. – Association of Audiovisual Editing Professionals.
Maíra Sala is a multidisciplinary artist and creative technologist with 16 years of experience in digital art and interactive storytelling. Her work, blending real-time interaction and immersive narratives, has been showcased at festivals like ISEA, Art Futura, Live Cinema, and Electrofringe. She has also taught interactive narrative at LAB Cinema Expandido in Rio de Janeiro. Combining artistic vision with technological expertise, she pushes the boundaries of storytelling and audience participation.
Laura Neiva studys Cinema and Audiovisual in PUC-Rio (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and is a producer. She produced more than eight short films and was in the feature “Por Nossa Causa” (2025) directed by Sérgio Rezende. Now, she is AD in the new series of Coevos Filmes, a famous Brazillian production company.
Ian Melo é formado pela PUC-Rio em Estudos de Mídia com ênfase em Cinema, trabalha atualmente como montador e participou da montagem de projetos audiovisuais ao lado de Bianca Peres, Pedro Freire e Marcia Antab.
