Rate of Return: False Promises of Mining in Brazil

Join us for the Canadian premiere of Rate of Return and afterwards a roundtable discussion with two of the Brazilian filmmakers and other special guests. This event is presented by the Latin American Studies Fellowship program.

About the Film
Rate of Return / Taxa de Retorno (Brazil, 2021. Duration: 19 minutes) documents the story of the São Pedro community, a small town typical of the state of Minas Gerais, after the arrival of a mining project that radically changed their lives.

About the Presenters

• Matheus Vieira is a Brazilian audiovisual producer, photographer, director and screenwriter. Mathues directed the documentary "Rate of Return (Taxa de Retorno)". [Instagram @matheusburns]
• Raoní Garcia is a photographer and photojournalist from Minas Gerais. He is the screenwriter and researcher of "Rate of Return (Taxa de Retorno)", and currently works documenting the stories of individuals affected by dam disasters in Minas Gerais. [instagram: @raonigf]
• Gabriela Jiménez is the Latin America Partnerships Coordinator at KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives since 2018. She has developed work on the gendered impacts of mining in the region, including Brazil.
• Vanbasten de Araújo is a PhD Candidate in Women & Gender Studies at the University of Toronto and a Brazilian scholar interested in decolonial science and technology studies in Latin America, especially in Brazil. His current PhD project focuses on how toxic matter affects the daily lives of humans and nonhumans, creating long-term health effects, particularly regarding their sexual and reproductive health.
• Anna Carneiro is the Latin American Studies Undergraduate Fellow for 2021-22, a student currently completing programs in International Relations and Political Science at the University of Toronto. She is from Minas Gerais, Brazil, and is currently doing her senior thesis on the prevalence of exctractivism in Brazil by investigating the evolution of the mining sector in the last two decades. Her research interests include political economy of resource extraction in Latin America, Brazilian politics, political ecology, and Latin America’s position in climate change mitigation efforts. [Instagram: @anna_laranjeira]