The Brazilian Film Festival That Inspires New Audiences With the Vegan Message

Film festival attendees sampling vegan food.

Approach

In addition to targeting the event to non-vegan animal lovers and film buffs, Louise offered vegan versions of traditional Brazilian foods — “pão de queijo” (cheese bread), cheese and corn “pastel,” and coxinha (with “chicken”) — as well as vegan chocolate cupcakes and plant milk. Louise and volunteers secured the partnership of city administration so that the festival could be held at Teatro Municipal Múcio de Castro (City Theater) for free.

Film festival attendees sampled vegan versions of traditional Brazilian foods and vegan chocolate cupcakes.

Vegan milk for sampling, with SVB pamphlets.

This film festival was the largest event Louise has organized for the animals, and volunteers were crucial to its success. Thirteen volunteers from the Passo Fundo group of Sociedade Vegetariana Brasileira (SVB) assisted in running the festival. Louise used Zoom, WhatsApp, and some in-person meetings to motivate, organize, and chat with volunteers. Each volunteer was assigned a specific role that aligned with their interests. Journalism student Alahna Oliveira, for example, served as the master of ceremonies. All received SVB t-shirts.

Louise typically finds volunteers through social media postings and from their SVB email list. Every event they hold brings one or more new volunteers to their group; for example, a man (Matheus Cavalheiro) who they purchased food from now volunteers at events and even co-coordinated the Film Festival for the Animals in Passo Fundo.

SVB poster that helps viewers make the connection between animals they see as pets and animals they see as food. (“If you love one, why eat the other?”)

Results

Many people loved the event so much that they didn’t want to leave. Attendees commented that they didn’t realize that animals suffer like they do or that they are so intelligent, cute, and friendly. And they enjoyed the food and vegan milks. Attendees became emotional at times, and so did the volunteers because they saw that it was a life-changing event for many, and they recognized the positive impact it could have for the animals.

Event Evaluation Survey

To obtain formal feedback about the festival, Louise adapted VegFund’s audience film-screening survey for her audience. A QR code linked to the online survey was displayed on a poster near the exit door and periodically on the film screen. Although only 24 people of the audience of 150 responded to the survey (a 16% response rate), the survey yielded some interesting findings. The most popular film endorsed by survey respondents was Milk Orphans, a Brazilian film about forgotten bovine mothers and children in the dairy industry. The most popular food items served were the vegan cupcakes and coxinha. The survey findings also revealed that most respondents learned about the festival through Instagram and friends.

Of the 58% of survey respondents who were currently eating animal products, about one-third said that, after watching the films, they would reduce their consumption of animal milk and eggs, about one-third would stop consuming animal milk, 17% would stop consuming eggs, 12% would reduce their meat consumption, and 12% would stop consuming meat.

All survey respondents reported that, following the event, they considered themselves more informed and sensitized about the importance of rescuing and adopting companion animals, animal cruelty in products tested on animals, and the cruelty that exists in the production of meat, milk, and eggs.

Louise and her group used electronic surveys rather than paper for the first time at this event, and she found them beneficial in reducing the time required to tabulate the data. They’re also more environmentally friendly, and she didn’t need to chase down missing pens. She noted that conducting a survey is a type of activism in itself because the questions prompt the attendees to reflect on their experience.

In the future, she hopes to achieve a higher survey response rate by making more announcements about the survey and displaying the QR code on the screen more frequently because people come and go throughout the day. She also plans to print more and larger signs in brighter colors to display the QR code more prominently around the venue.

About Louise

Louise became vegan in 2011 at age 23 after being vegetarian for 10 years, and she launched her prolific activism career the same year. In just the past 4 years, she’s received 23 VegFund grants for vegan advocacy events. These activities include vegan food sampling held in strategic locations such as a nutrition college, a local pet store holding a dog-adoption event, and a workshop at a “holistic” conference. Louise’s events over the past four years have directly reached approximately 5,937 people who enjoyed 6,663 vegan food samples!

Louise received a grant from VegFund in 2021 that helped SVB install three billboards in high-traffic areas of Passo Fundo. Approximately 42,000 passersby were exposed to the campaign message, “If you love one, why eat the other?”

In 2022, accompanied by three volunteers, she spoke to 350 children and their teachers at two public elementary schools by invitation from vegan teacher Marcelle Toscani (who has recently joined the group as a new volunteer). To be acceptable to the schools, Louise focused her talk on pet dogs and cats, and she also used the opportunity to talk about the personalities and intelligence of farmed animals and what we can do to respect them. The students sampled vegan chocolate cake baked by school employees using the teacher’s recipe and low-cost ingredients. The feedback from the schools and the children’s reactions were very positive. Louise encourages other vegan advocates to speak to children at schools. She believes this was one of her most successful events ever.

Louise and her dog Lótus, letting a student experience how veterinarians help keep pets healthy.

Top Tips

Louise has learned a lot from helping to organize six editions of the Film Festival for the Animals in Curitiba and Rio de Janeiro in past years and this year in Passo Fundo. She stresses the importance of advertising the event to non-vegan animal lovers, for example, by displaying posters in pet shops and vet clinics and not branding it as a “vegan event” — and, course, offering free food to attract people to the festival. She sees their partnership with City Hall as important in legitimizing the event to the public and obtaining radio advertising.

What’s Next?

Louise, along with other SVB volunteers, plans to hold the Film Festival for the Animals again in 2023 in Passo Fundo and help organize it in Curitiba and possibly other cities in Brazil. She hopes to expand their advertising next year to attract a larger audience. Her team has already started to plan the festival details during the first months of 2023 so that they will have more time to focus on advertising later in the year. She hopes to visit university classes to publicize the festival to veterinary and biology students.

[from left to right] Fiori Vonière, director of “Death of a Dog,” Matheus Cavalheiro, film festival co-coordinator, Juliano Lavrador, director of “Deixe Viver,” and Fábio Rockenbach, professor and researcher of cinematography at University of Passo Fundo.

Feature photo (top of story): [from left to right] Larissa Maluf, director of “Milk Orphans,” Arthur Bandeira, director of “Don’t Leave Me Alone,” Bruna Bortolini, professor of philosophy at University of Passo Fundo, and film festival co-coordinator Louise Tezza discussing the films and answering audience questions.