São Paulo
At the age of 16, on the edge of a mangrove on the outskirts of Guarujá (SP), Konrad Dantas, 35, known as KondZilla, dreamed of telling stories from the outskirts of São Paulo in an audiovisual production. This Tuesday (10), the creator of “Sintonia” (Netflix) was announced as one of the new members of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, alongside presenter and comedian Paulo Vieira and the CEO of Conspiração Filmes, Renata Brandão , among other Brazilians.
The recognition comes two months after the launch of the fourth season of the series, based on a story written by the producer and created together with Felipe Braga and Guilherme Quintella. The production reached 1st place in the Global Top 10 of non-English language series on Netflix in August and has already had its fifth and final season announced by streaming.
KondZilla, who in addition to being a producer is a businessman and presenter, says he is “a kid from the favela who tells stories to people from the favela”. That’s where the desire to represent his reality in audiovisual came from. The speech took place last Saturday (7), during a presentation by Dantas and Grazi Mendes, head of diversity at Thoughtworks, at the Juntos Conference.
“I keep thinking about how much my mother gave me freedom and some tools [como o computador]and he trusted me too, so that I could use these tools to become a professional today who uses digital to my advantage, in favor of the stories and culture of the periphery, and black culture here in Brazil”, he told F5.
For KondZilla, entertainment must be combined with education so that more people from the periphery have access to social spaces. Therefore, parents must understand the use of digital technologies, such as smartphones, as an ally for learning. “Having the sensitivity to differentiate between what it means to prune a possible talent and what it means to abandon your children’s education, placing responsibility solely on these tools”, she commented.
The producer says that, like Nando (Christian Malheiros) from “Sintonia”, he lost his mother early and needed to start a business. Dantas’ mother died when he was around 19 years old, leaving him and his brother a savings account, which was used for studies.
“There’s a little pinch [da minha história] on all characters. Since his development, I have always seen Nando as an entrepreneur, a director. The difference is that he had the opportunity to show his talent in an activity that is still not regulated today,” he said.
In the producer’s opinion, the character’s story, however, is not about drugs, but about how he takes care of his family, his affection for his daughter, respect for his wife and loyalty to his childhood friends, called soul brothers behind the scenes of the film. series.
During the presentation, KondZilla said that the series is made up of three universes and five characters. The first are church, music and crime, where conflicts and stories develop. The characters are Nando, Doni (Jottapê) and Rita (Bruna Mascarenhas), in addition to the costumes and vocabulary, which make up urban culture and which he highlights as elements with life in the work.
Dantas said, for example, that he thought of every detail of Nando’s costume so that it reproduced the brands, signs and logos used in São Paulo’s ravines. The dialogues were constructed by people who took a theater course while they were imprisoned in the penitentiary system, to avoid the creation of stereotypes by the series’ script and build verisimilitude.
Regarding the religious aspect, the producer also recalled having grown up in the Assembly of God, where he learned Christian doctrine and the role of the church in Brazilian communities. “Many of the people who work with dramaturgy are from other religions or have no religion. It was a challenge [fazê-las] contemplate the social impact of the church on the outskirts”, he stated on stage.
For him, the church is where peripheral young people access culture and develop skills that will be used in the corporate world. It is in these communities, for example, that children learn to play instruments, develop public speaking skills and experience community life.
KondZilla said that, during his adolescence, he created remixes and invited a colleague from the community to create a keyboard background. He played the instrument in church. In adult life, one of the times he was nominated for a Grammy, a friend was a finalist as producer of the album by the gospel group Preto no Branco. “He was the kid who put the keyboard sounds in the songs”, he said.
The producer also highlighted the need for Brazil to encourage the development of the creative economy, with investments in technology, creativity and entertainment. “There is no country that developed without economy in the field of ideas”, he assessed.
