BEST 2019 SHORT DOC AWARD BY THE BRAZILIAN ACADEMY FILM

The film will present Kauan’s (an albino child) routine in a colorful universe. Colored by the black people around him (family members and classmates) and by the bright colors and beautiful city of Olinda, where the story takes place. Kauan articulates, in his unique manner, the intricacies of his atypical family's daily routine and shares how he gracefully navigates the challenges that come with being different. The boy’s sensibility and charisma are his weapons in the fight to fit in the local culture and prove that skin tone means nothing. The documentary’s (anticipated) conclusion is that, to the eyes of a child, even the most complex and tough stories take another form: a playful, delicate form. After all, Kauan is just a very energetic boy inserted in a culture of different tones and colors. Olinda’s population is 80% black.

The kick-start to the short film-documentary project’s development “Cor de Pele” happened through a casual conversation with the Pernambucano photographer Alexandre Severo, who portrayed Kauan’s family in 2009, in the photo shoot “À Flor da Pele”. His fascinating account on that family environment instigated the interest in going deeper into the family’s routine. More and more conversations happened and, in the end, Kauan’s history proved to be the perfect driving force to bring about a still un-investigated debate: albinism - a genetic mutation which results in the absence or decrease in one’s melanin production. Note: Alexandre Severo passed away in 2013 while he followed the then candidate for President of Brazil, Eduardo Campo, as his photographer. The candidate’s plane crashed in São Paulo with both on board. His death was an extra incentive to keep going and actually tell this story he started.