Ricardo, a fifteen-year-old teenage boy, lives in Lençóis, a small city in the interior of Bahia. Loved by many people in his community, he is known as “Boa Sorte” because instead of saying goodbye he gives a nice warm good luck. His dream is to move to Rio de Janeiro to become an actor. Writing poetry, playing the recorder, and theater are a few of his many hobbies. The video above gives you a feeling of his day-to-day life. Through building this project, I learned that it is an intimate experience to allow someone to film you. It is an uncomfortable experience when you don’t know anything about the person and that person is from another country. So before just taking my camera “third-eye” and going out and filming him, I had to find some common ground on which to meet Ricardo. Taking time to share my life how it is back at home, finding similarities between his life and mine, and most importantly listening were all valuable elements of this project. This experience allowed Ricardo to and share with me his fears and aspirations. It was a pleasure to work with Ricardo, a very vibrant boy filled with dreams and hopes.
