I always say that NOIA was a school for me, it was my first production course. We didn't know how to do it, but we had the drive and desire to create an exhibition space that many students like us lacked.
Noia appeared in the corridors and rooms of the Humanities Center of the Federal University of Ceará, in 2002. There were still no university Cinema courses in the State, which meant that Communication courses, among others, brought together people interested in working with audiovisual and all its possibilities. That was our case.
We were a group made up of 4 students - Angélica Emília, Ione Lindelauf, Júnior Ratts and I, and we decided to make a film with the few resources and equipment that the public University had at that time (remembering that the first administration of the Lula government only started in 2003 ). We dedicated ourselves a lot to this film and when we signed up for Cine Ceará that year, we were not selected for the main show. This frustrated us and made us think about spaces for disseminating university audiovisual production, in Ceará and Brazil. So we started contact with the few Brazilian festivals of this nature that existed at the time and created NOIA.
I always say that NOIA was a school for me, it was my first production course. We didn't know how to do it, but we had the drive and desire to create an exhibition space that many students like us lacked. That's how we committed to carrying out the NOIA first, and we went after finding out how to do it.
Our inexperience was, at the same time, a strength and a risk. Learning by doing is wonderful, but the learning that results from our mistakes is difficult to deal with. I remember several sensations in the first years of NOIA: excitement, desire, insecurities, joy, doubts, strength in partnerships, conflicts of interests, building friendships, the feeling that we were discovering what we wanted to do for the rest of our lives. And that's exactly what happened to me. Today I am a Cinema worker born and raised behind the scenes at this Festival.
NOIA grew, added new people (like Paulo Benevides, who arrived in the second edition and is now the director of the event), gained relevance, promoted incredible meetings, showed hundreds of university films, was one of the first opportunities for many directors that are recognized around the world today.
I left the team in the seventh edition and after that I made several occasional appearances in the production and communication of NOIA. I've never completely detached myself because perhaps I feel a creator-creature bond with it. I have already disagreed with several of the Festival's decisions, I point out mistakes, I celebrate successes. I speak the truth with the frankness of someone who saw this event come to life.
In 2024, once again, I am contributing to the communications team, led by Carlo Benevides. I teach what I know to the younger people, who today largely make up the event team. I also learn a lot from each one. And that's one of the good reasons to keep that flame burning.
Today I continue contributing to the event that I helped put into the world, and which was also a school and the birthplace of many of my dreams. I hope that NOIA continues offering to everyone all the good things it once gave me!
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