City of God Spin-off

This Monday (12), the short film 'Buscapé' will be launched, the result of an unprecedented partnership between Vivo and Motorola and idealized by the agency VMLY&R. Produced by O2 Filmes and directed by Fred Luz, the short film is born exactly 20 years after the release of the award-winning 'City of God', by director Fernando Meirelles, bringing to the Brazilian audience the opportunity to check out a spin-off of the film that remains as one of the most important in the history of cinema, being the only Brazilian production to receive four Oscar® nominations and recently elected as the second most watched foreign film in the world, according to a study conducted by the online platform Preply.

The project was born not only to honor the 20 years of history of the movie 'City of God', but also to launch the new motorola edge 30 ultra with the power of Vivo's 5G connection. The friendship between Buscapé and Barbantinho is the leading thread of this new story, and the actors Alexandre Rodrigues and Edson Oliveira once again bring the iconic characters to life. In the spin-off, Buscapé returns to Cidade de Deus, now as a professional photojournalist, to cover a special event within the community, but changes his plans when he stumbles upon a discovery that will start an investigation, using Vivo's 5G connection and the new edge as his allies.

"I am pleased to see this story being revisited. This time by the hands of Fred Luz, who put the focus on what is positive in the community, its culture, and not on the violence," comments Fernando Meirelles, executive producer of the short film.

"Our pretension, our desire, is that there be this "glue", this relationship between 'City of God' and 'Buscapé', but also building a proprietary identity for the short film, it can't just be a remake of 'City of God' now, but what changes from then to now, how we look at this work 20 years later and how we interpret the choices. A very intense dive, of a lot of learning and listening," reveals Fred Luz.

"Having technology as the main theme of this story is a way of highlighting its transforming role and paying great tribute to the most iconic film in Brazilian cinema," says Marina Daineze, Director of Brand and Communication at Vivo.

"This project rescues a tradition of the Vivo brand of creating content that pays tribute to great landmarks of Brazilian culture. Now, 20 years after the release of the greatest Brazilian film of all time, the union of Vivo and Motorola enables the reunion of the main characters involved in the original film. A historical celebration, for a historical film", comments Rafael Pitanguy, VMLY&R Brazil CCO and Deputy Global CCO of VMLY&R network.

"Smartphones are now an essential part of consumers' lives. With technology, content creation becomes more and more viable. That is why we put the smartphone into action. Without having a professional camera, the Buscapé character uses his cell phone for journalistic investigation, with all the resources in the palm of his hand to generate quality content," said Andrea Brandi, head of Branding at Motorola.

The short film can be watched at vivo.com.br/buscape or on Vivo's channel on YouTube, besides being available in full to Vivo Play subscribers. To maximize the publicity, 'Buscapé' will count on a communication strategy considering outdoor media in the country's main capitals, trailers in movie theaters, and online media with several content pills highlighting the features of the new smartphone used by the story's protagonist.

Buscapé 20 years later
The production of this exclusive project counts with the participation of important names from the original feature film, such as César Charlone, who participated in the pre-production and initial meetings of the new project, visiting locations with Fred Luz, the director responsible for the new project. Cecília Homem de Mello, Rodrigo Carvalho, Bia Salgado, Antonio Pinto and Christian Duurvoort. Paulo Lins, author of the book that originated the story shown on movie screens all over the world, also had a special participation in the construction of 'Buscapé'.

To bring out this work, the short film included five days of cast preparation, three days of testing for hair and makeup, and four days of shooting. In all, 120 people were mobilized on the crew, and 169 extras were on location throughout the shoot. The final material also includes footage of some scenes shot with the motorola edge 30 ultra-smartphone itself, which has the highest resolution camera system on the market.

"The first word that comes to my mind is challenge! When Fernando invited me, I think it was a delight, it was a gift, an invitation to be part of, to develop a project like this. It is also a very big responsibility, and I think that if you relate to the dramaturgy of City of God 20 years later and make a short film that has the pretension of being a sequence, a spin-off, of this film, it deserves a very intense dive, and this dive was mostly about knowing how to listen, knowing how to understand, because one of the great merits of this project, in my opinion, was to bring in several professionals who developed the language, the identity, who built the film City of God back then, together with Fernando", says Fred Luz. The 14-minute "Buscapé" was filmed by photographer Rodrigo Carvalho.

Watch 'Buscapé': https://youtu.be/ArJZVfX5y7E