Par: Tina Singleton, Posté le: May 17 09

Regions: Brazil

Issues: Detention, Justice, Mental disability rights

Tags: access to medical treatment, Anis, Debora Diniz, prisons, psychiatric reform, VAI

May 18 is National Day of Psychiatric Reform in Brazil, and activist and researcher Debora Diniz is hard at work advocating the issue.  Debora, from Brasília, Brazil, is an activist and researcher at Anis: Institute of Bioethics, Human Rights and Gender.

I first met Debora in July 2008 at WITNESS' Video Advocacy Institute (VAI), in Montreal, Canada, at Concordia University.  In collaboration with the Department of Communication and Documentary Centre, this 10-day video advocacy training brought together 27 human rights advocates from around the world to learn how to integrate video into their human rights campaigns.  As the VAI Coordinator, I had the pleasure of working with and following the training of these incredibly committed advocates.  When I read Debora's application for the VAI, it stood out from a pool of almost 300 applicants because of her commitment to human rights, clear advocacy focus on psychiatric reform in Brazil, and strategy for how to integrate an advocacy video in this campaign.

Debora's proposed advocacy video is to be used as part of an advocacy campaign to provide evidence of the vulnerability of people living in psychiatric prisons in Brazil, and to advocate for the right to live freely.  At the VAI, Debora participated in group sessions on video advocacy strategy and film production as well as work in small regional groups with other participants to refine her Video Action Plan (VAP), which is a blueprint for production and distribution of an advocacy video.  The VAP includes honing the objectives, messaging, storytelling and distribution plan for the video.  As Debora edited the video in Brazil, she sent us the rough cut for comments and feedback.

The resulting film, House of the Dead, chronicles the lives of inmates at a psychiatric prison in Salvador.  The film was launched at the International It's All True Documentary Film Festival in March and awarded the best doc at the Amazonia Doc Festival. The film has been accepted to be exhibited in several festivals around the country and internationally, and was reviewed by several important newspapers in Brazil. The film will be distributed free of charge.

At the same day of the launch of the video at the It's All True Festival, Debora tells us, "The President of the Brazilian Supreme Court, Judge Gilmar Mendes, received our petition related to the psychiatric prisons in the country.  We asked the court to review cases like Almerindo, who is profiled in the film and living in "life imprisonment".  As a result of both the video and the petition, the Justice Council decided to initiate the review of all the cases like him in the 25 institutions around the country."  In addition, the Brazilian National Council of Public Defendants decided to support the advocacy campaign in all states of the country.  The proposal is to exhibit the film in all states to open the discussion about the psychiatric prisons and the right to be free.

House of the Dead will be launched at two political events today in Brazil on honor of the National Day of Psychiatric Reform: in Salvador, the city where the documentary was filmed, in a large debate around the issue; and in Brasília, at the University of Brasilia, with several policy makers.  Since the first screening of House of the Dead, the network around the campaign has grown to include several legal, psychological and scientific organizations and institutes.  As Debora updates WITNESS, "We are thinking about a Supreme Court proposal for next August."

The success of Debora's documentary at film festivals reflects not only the quality of the film she produced and directed, but also how film festivals can be a powerful tool to shed light on human rights issues that festival goers may not normally be exposed to, in this case, psychiatric reform in Brazil.

This blog is the first of a series of posts about VAI alumni - stay tuned as we continue to follow the progress of their advocacy videos and advocacy efforts.  WITNESS brought these human rights advocates together because we believe in their work and we look forward to highlighting their human rights work around the world. 

As for House of the Dead, what impact did the film have on you?  Let us know the comments field below...

[Tina Singleton is the Video Advocacy Institute Coordinator at WITNESS]