A film by Vini Moreira
Shortfilm – Brazil– 2025 – 15 min
Color | Portuguese with subtitles | 2:1 | 5.1
Synopsis
Ludmilla is an unmotivated P.E. teacher who tries to maintain a routine that is distant from her students at a public school. But when her fourth grade students ask to participate in the Interschool Dodgeball Games, she is confronted by her past. While facing her insecurities and a school environment without resources, Ludmilla discovers, in the persistence of her students, the power of connection, overcoming, and the joy of competing, even when the result is not victory.
Cast
Ludmilla - Isabella Furtado
Valéria - Agda Couto
Dudu - Joaquim Montarano
Crew
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED: Vini Moreira
EXECUTIVE PRODUCTION: Gustavo Fontele
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR: Gabriel Brito
CO-PRODUCTION: Frame Digital | Odara Filmes | Fontele Studios
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Elisa Souza
PRODUCTION DESIGN: Helena Dupin
SOUND TECHNICIAN: BERNARDO PAIXÃO
SOUND DESIGN, MIX AND MASTER: Micael Guimarães
EDITING AND COLOR: Vini Moreira
ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK: Tássio Caetano
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
How do our memories shape our lives?
Memory is a fundamental element of the human experience. It helps us understand and process our experiences and allows us to create narratives about our lives. Cinema is one of the most powerful art forms for exploring the complexity of memory. It allows us to revisit the past and reflect on our experiences in new and meaningful ways.
The short film is semi-biographical, set at a public school in Taguatinga (at the outskirts of Brasília) in 2004. The project's narrative was constructed by revisiting affective memories of the 2004 Taguatinga's School Games, when I began to question my old P.E. teacher and things that, as a child, I did not notice nor understand. In the short film, as in real life, the school does not have any sports structure, nothing to play any sport. Some students like to meet behind the bleachers to play dodgeball. Since the school does not have any structure for sports, the students play dodgeball with improvised crumpled newspaper balls. Even so, the students want to participate in the school games.
I am very happy to say that we filmed the short film at the same school where I studied in elementary school. Unfortunately, the structural problems of the school still haunt the new generation. I had the opportunity to talk to the current physical education teacher at the school and, in the 20 years since I was there, very little has changed.
In our short film "Ludmilla", we delve into the life of a young and unmotivated physical education teacher who finds herself dissatisfied with her life. Our story unfolds when her fourth grade students ask to participate in the Taguatinga's School Games. Throughout the short film, old wounds that haunt the teacher are revealed.
DIRECTOR'S BIOGRAPHY
Born and raised in Taguatinga, Vini Moreira has a degree in Cinema from the Instituto de Ensino Superior de Brasília (IESB) and has specializations in editing and color grading.
After finishing college, he entered the advertising scene as a Motion Designer, working for clients such as Budweiser, Spaten, Garena FreeFire, Rock in Rio, Banco Itaú. He also worked as a Composite artist on Alê Abreu's (The Boy and The World, 2013) latest feature film “Perlimps” (2023).
Focusing on his directing career, in 2020 he directed "Embaixapa", an independent short film with no budget that, in the festival circuit, entered in more than 10 international festivals and won two awards (Best Foreign Shortfilm at the Canadian Diversity Film Festival and Best Cinematography at the Madrid International Short Film Festival). "Ludmilla" (2025) is his first project with a budget.
