São Paulo-based production company Estudio Escarlate is set to announce a “Chico Vive” (“Chico Lives”) project during this year’s Expocine. The initiative includes the production of a doc and a biopic about Brazilian environmental leader Chico Mendes and the development of a manual with guidelines for sustainable film and TV productions, Escarlate CEO Joana Henning told Variety.
The features, which will be helmed by Sergio Carvalho and Sergio Machado, will be the first two fully sustainable productions in Brazil. The doc is due to premiere during the 30th UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Nov. 2025 in Belem, a Brazilian city located in the Amazon Rainforest.
The biopic, which will star Jorge Paz as Mendes, will be lensed in 2026 and released in 2027 domestically and abroad. The manual will be drafted based on the shooting experiences of the two features and is expected to be published in 2027, Henning said.
Chico Mendes, who was murdered by a rancher in 1988, is an international symbol of the struggle to protect the Amazon Rainforest. As the leader of the rubber tapper trade union, he organized the so-called “empates,” a pacifist resistance action in which workers blocked the advance of machines entering the forest with their bodies.
“Chico Mendes is the Amazon Rainforest’s Mahatma Gandhi, a hero who spent the last years of his life trying to raise the people’s awareness about the importance of preserving the forest,” said Henning.
In Expocine, Escarlate will sign an agreement with Embratur, Brazil’s federal government agency for the promotion of the country as a tourist destination. Embratur, which is putting together a federal film commission, will contribute to the films by helping Escarlate find locations, hire local staff and shoot in the Amazon Rainforest, according to Henning.
Escarlate has also signed agreements for the Chico Vive project with Brazil’s Environment and Racial Equity ministries. Rafael Dragaud is the artistic director of the Chico Vive project.
Escarlate partnered on the project with Pachamama Investimentos, a local company specializing in investments in green assets aiming to preserve the environment and stimulate ESG practices. TV and film star Bruno Gagliasso is one of Pachamama’s shareholders and will act in the biopic. He and Jorge Paz will also be associate producers.
Pachamama works in partnership with Greener Tokens, a Swiss-based company that uses blockchain technology to issue tokens designed to promote sustainability.
Pachamama will inventory the two films’ carbon emissions from screenplay development through post-production, including power generation on set and the terrestrial and aerial transportation of equipment and crew. Escarlate will buy tokens from Greener to compensate for the emissions, and Greener will direct the money to various environmental projects in the Amazon Rainforest.
Pachamama and Escarlate will profit from the knowledge accumulated in the pics’ production processes to write the manual with guidelines for sustainable film and TV content productions in Brazil, Gagliasso told Variety.
“The manual will contain requirements and practical orientation for sustainable practices in film and TV productions,” he said. “It will address energy efficiency, management of hydric resources and garbage disposal, recycling, reduction of carbon emissions, and guidelines for hiring local residents in the productions.”
“I believe the manual will be an important contribution to the local film and TV industry,” Gagliasso said.
Source Agencies
