Campos do Cerrado: what many people mistake for pasture

Native grasslands cover much of Goiás, but almost no one sees them. Landowners, technicians and even public officials tend to treat this low vegetation as degraded land, fit to be turned into pasture or planted with trees. The Campos do Cerrado (Cerrado Grasslands) project, run by the Goiás State Environment Department (SEMAD-GO) with Unicamp, needed a film that would draw lay audiences' attention to this landscape and to its role in producing water.

Instead of an explainer video, we told the story through one person's eyes. The film's thread is documentary photographer André Dib, who chose the Cerrado as his home and has been documenting Brazil's biomes for two decades. He talks about what he has learned from researchers and from local people, and about the highland landscapes he photographed that no longer exist.

Alongside him is Seu Zimar, a longtime Chapada resident who remembers the fruit, the ponds and the rains of the past. Field footage alternates with Dib's photographs of the grasslands, the wildlife and the details of the Cerrado floor.

The script grew out of the interview logs and went through several rounds of review with the project's scientific team, who checked the subtitles and technical terms. The film is part of the communication package Forest created for the project, with a communication plan, visual identity, hotsite, brochure and cards.

The film is part of the Campos do Cerrado project's communication package, alongside the grassland identification manual, the brochure, the cards and the website.