Basta um Dia - Living Day by Day

Presentations:
Thursday, December 6th, 2007
2:30 pm and 8:30 pm

Columbia University
Mailman School of Public Health
Department of Sociomedical Sciences

Location:
5th Floor Conference Room
Allan Rosenfield Building
722 West 168th Street
New York, NY 10032

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Directed by Vagner de Almeida

The documentary film, “Living Day By Day” depicts the lives of Brazilians who, with both courage and fear, strive to survive (many times without success) the harsh and violent reality that they experience in daily life. They are transgender individuals, homosexuals, ‘fags’, ‘queer boys’, gays, all residing in the Fluminense Valley, where they confront prejudice, violent aggression, and social (and sometimes physical) death along the margins of the Presidente Dutra highway – the main connection between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, two of the largest and wealthiest metropolises in Brazil. The film seeks to capture the complicated negotiation and movement between life and its finitude, hope and desperation, pain and resistance, disbelief and reaction – around which these people are obligated to organize their individual and collective lives. “Living Day By Day” tells the story of these social agents as they experience brutal massacres, murders, and violence of all types to which they are subjected. And it portrays situations of exclusion and abandonment that marginalized people must face in the hands of dominant social powers. More than denouncing the impunity of these hate crimes against transgender, homosexuals, gays, and other non-heterosexuals, this documentary tries to bring together the collective voice of resistance of all who struggle for citizenship and for the affirmation of life as supreme and universal.

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A panel discussion will follow the 8:30 pm presentation of the film. Speakers include:

• Richard Parker - Professor and Chair, Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
• Diane Di Mauro – Assistant Professor of Clinical Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
• Miguel Munõz-Laboy – Assistant Professor of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
• Sel J. Hwahng – Research Investigator, The Transgender Project Institute for Treatment and Services Research National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., and Visiting Scholar and Adjunct Professor, Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, Columbia University
• Vagner de Almeida – Director of the film, Staff Associate, Mailman School of Public Health Columbia University Center for Gender, Sexuality and Health, and Project Coordinator, ABIA – Associação Brasileira Interdisciplinar de AIDS