Magic Kombi (aka Misson Environment) has been selected to participate at the PIC DOC International Training Program, taking place in Rio from 19th of November until 4th of December! We’re among the 40 finalists, yeap!

Helena and I will be at Pestana Hotel for the whole week, and the agenda include:

• Perspectives for documentaries at national and international level
• Co-productions: good case studies
• Presentation of the selected projects
• Training on pitching, budgeting and legal aspects for documentaries
• Distribution and new media
• Selection of the 10 projects, which will be taken to USA in January for the market!

We’re already very excited with this opportunity, and we believe we could be among the 10 finalists! This week is essential to check on the project evolution over the past three months, get well prepared and do it!

A surprise… I received a call from one of the finalists projects (I knew them before and they knew about the Magic Kombi), for a talk. This Tuesday we met in São Paulo and they were about to produce their “promo-video” and they needed an actor, a protagonist, someone like me to be part of their video.

After clarifying roles with my production company in Rio (I have a pre-contract with them), I agreed to participate, without committing afterwords, just for this 5 minutes. And it was fun!

The shooting took place outside São Paulo, on the road towards Curitiba (a typical road), from 6am until almost noon. I got my bike, helmet and jacket. Full style! Now I’m waiting to see the results, before the pitch next Wednesday…

Meanwhile, we’re expecting the results from PIC DOC (postponed to Nov 5th) and approaching some private companies. Updates to come…

It’s an interesting iniciative promoted by the Brazilian Independent TV Producers Association (ABPI-TV), Secretary of Audiovisual – Ministry of Culture (SAV/MINC) and the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (APEX-BRASIL). Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

I wrote earlier in July that we had a “pause” in the project, for different reasions. I managed to graduate from the Kaospilots, and now I arrived back in Brazil. Meanwhile, a production company from Rio approached us with a very interesting proposal: transform the trip into a TV series on sustainability and environment. The Magic Kombi became Mission: Environment!!

I’ve been working like crazy during the past 10 days for two deadlines, sending out applications, and recording a promo video. It turned out to be fantastic!!! Unfortunately I can’t share it yet (we’re taking part of a public open competition) but soon it will be posted here!

And of course we’re looking for organizations which would like to sponsor us!

Stay tuned!

It has been a while without updates. A lot has happened since March. Some big turns and some “detours”.

I have changed the focus of my Kaospilot final project, from the planning of the Magic Kombi to the development of a social business plan for a Foundation called Wind People. This took most of my time over the last 3 months, and the Magic Kombi had to wait a little bit. It was a great chance to reflect on the process, get together with Marcio in Brazil and refocus what the kombi means, and what aims to achieve.

The Magic Kombi is still planned to take place, most probably around October-December 2009.

Stay tunned for more news soon, and stay in touch if you’d like to collaborate!

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The Magic Kombi has been created as part (and end) of my Kaospilot Education. For 2,5 years I have lived in Århus, Denmark, studying and learning (many times unlearning and relearning too) and today I’m working full-time on my final project.

A couple of weeks ago I got my synopsis approved, which is a description of my project and my learning goals for the next 2 months, including what will be the extra criteria which I’ll be evaluated upon. The individualized and customized Education allows amazing things to take place. I still need to find an external subject censor for my project…

I have to deliver a 20-pages report by middle of May and my final (oral) exam will take place in the second week of June, together with my graduation ceremony and party, also known as Translocation Party!!

If any of you happen to be “around” in June, just book your agendas: 19th of June, for the best party ever (I’m serious!)

1 …love Nature and are deeply concerned about its destruction

2 …are strongly aware of the problems of the whole planet (global warming, destruction of rainforests, overpopulation, lack of ecological sustainability, exploitation of people in poorer countries) and want to see more action on them, such as limiting economic growth

3 …would pay more taxes or pay more for consumer goods if you could know the money would go to clean up the environment and to stop global warming

4 …place a great deal of importance on developing and maintaining your relationships

5 …place a lot of value on helping other people and bringing out their unique gifts

6 …do volunteering for one or more good causes

7 …care intensely about both psychological and spiritual development

8 …see spirituality or religion as important in your life, but are concerned about the role of the Religious Right in politics

9 …want more equality for women at work, and more women leaders in business and politics

10 …are concerned about violence and abuse of women and children around the world

11 …want our politics and government spending to put more emphasis on children’s education and well-being, on rebuilding our neighborhoods and communities, and on creating an ecologically sustainable future

12 …are unhappy with both the Left and the Right in politics, and want a to find a new way that is not in the mushy middle

13 …tend to be somewhat optimistic about our future, and distrust the cynical and pessimistic view that is given by the media

14 …want to be involved in creating a new and better way of life in our country

15 …are concerned about what the big corporations are doing in the name of making more profits: downsizing, creating environmental problems, and exploiting poorer countries

16 …have your finances and spending under control, and are not concerned about overspending

17 …dislike all the emphasis in modern culture on success and “making it,” on getting and spending, on wealth and luxury goods

18 …like people and places that are exotic and foreign, and like experiencing and learning about other ways of life.

If you agreed with 10 or more, you probably are a Cultural Creative!
(questionnaire taken from CulturalCreatives.org)

So… what are Cultural Creatives?

Cultural Creatives are a growing segment of local, national and global population who display some or many of the characteristics described above (the questionnaire). The term was coined by Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Andersonin in their book “The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People are Changing the World” (2000) and by that year they represented over 25% of the population in the USA.

The Magic Kombi aims to support the sharing of stories created by Cultural Creatives in South America over the last decades; stories that most of the times are not captured by the mainstream media, and therefore not known by most of the population.

“[Henrique], we are wholehearted supporters of your project.” – Innovation Lab

Innovation Lab has been collaborating with the Magic Kombi over the past weeks with technology insights (web 2.0) and project management tools. We love partnering up!!

Innovation Lab is an international knowledge centre for new technology, having established over the last 6 years a network comprising close to 2500 connections within worldwide research, product development and entrepreneurship.

This network operates as our “antenna association” providing us with a broad perspective of the scope of emerging technologies, of their potential, and of who has advanced the furthest and with what.

Such an overview supplies us with a quite precise impression of what will be stirring in 3-5 years which is the time span right now on the drawing boards of research and development departments.

Innovation Lab is based in Aarhus and Copenhagen.

More information on their website http://ilab.dk/en/

We started by asking ourselves “How to communicate before, during and after the trip?” and we brainstorm on different technologies able to answer this question.

At a certain point we had to stop and work individually, mapping out stakeholder groups and their involvement with the project (what they need, what they can give to us and specific framework considerations).

As magic happens, in the end of the afternoon, after a lot of thinking done, a clear red thread through the needs of different stakeholders appeared to me.

It was a fantastic outcome for the day! Clear like water! And the process of redefining our purpose had to be restarted!

Over the weekend, during the visit of Florentine, a super special friend from Amsterdam, we worked a little bit further with this new insight, and trying to get to the essence of what the purpose meant to me. Meanwhile, Marcio Jappe (my partner in the project) received a list of ideas and suggestions for the purpose, by e-mail, in Brazil.

At the end, it clicked, and I loved it:

Magic Kombi
Inspiring Action towards a more Sustainable World

So, how does this statement sound to you?

This is Findhorn, an eco-village in Scotland, a pioneer initiative started in the early 60’s…