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Reading
the World
The early work of Paulo Freire
Lendo O Mundo
US/Brazil | 2025 | 73'
Directed by Catherine Murphy & Iris de Oliveira
Produced by Micaela Ovelar, Carina Aparecida, and Miranda Montenegro for Maestra Productions
Education does not change the world.
Education changes people. People change the world.
- Paulo Freire
In the early 1960s, Paulo Freire led an experimental adult education project in Northeastern Brazil. This work enabled hundreds of rural men & women to read, write, and vote. Political upheaval at the time led to Freire’s arrest and years of exile, during which time he became an icon of advancing democracy through global education.
Original Title: Lendo o Mundo
English Title: Reading the World
Genre: Documentary
Runtime: 73 minutes
Completion date: January 2025
Production Countries: US & Brazil
Worldwide rights available.
In 1963, Paulo Freire led a small group of educators across Northeastern Brazil in experimental “Culture Circles,” teaching 300 adult farmers to read and write in forty hours. Their innovative method used critical and creative thinking instead of memorization and repetition. By contextualizing and personalizing the lessons, educators used their surroundings to teach vocabulary and construct meaning. Illiterate people were not allowed to vote, and Freire’s project opened the door for them to get ID cards for the first time and participate in the fervor blossoming democracy taking place in Brazil at that time. A coup d’etat in 1964 overthrew the president, shut down the program and setting fire to the farmers’ notebooks. Freire was forced into exile for 16 years, spreading this pedagogy around the globe and impacting education until today.
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Directed by: Catherine Murphy
Co-director: Iris de Oliveira
Producers: Micaela Ovelar, Carina Aparecida, Miranda Montenegro
Editors: Iris de Oliveira, Renato Maia, Mara Wollong
Scriptwriters: Iris de Oliveira, Mara Wollong
Executive producers: Petra Costa, Kit Miller, T.M. Scruggs
Consulting producers: Gary Wright Jr., Rachel Dickson, Maria Luisa Mendonça
Cinematography: Carina Aparecida, Cristiano Burlan, Ulises Brandao, Oto Cartaxo, Caio Castor, Renato Maia, Passos Jr
Sound: Felipe Mago, Valney Damacena, Alban Henriquez
Archival Producers: Stephanie Temoteo, Micaela Ovelar
Archival Footage: Bela Films, SESC, VIU Cine, UFERSA, Repórter Brasil, Mapa Filmes, Caliban Films, Cinemateca Brasileira, Arquivo Nacional
Music: Chico Cesar, Bia Ferreira, Cláudio Rabeca
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