Spaces for professional training and expansion of access for new social actors to the audiovisual field

The case of Audiovisual Center of São Bernardo do Campo (CAV)

Abstract

Training spaces in audiovisual language in Brazil throughout the 2010s gained strength in face of the expansion of debates on the so-called "creative economy" in the private sector and public management. Regarding the performance of those spaces, this article presents a case study on the São Bernardo do Campo Audiovisual Center – CAV, opened in 2012, in the ABC region of São Paulo. In addition to a school, which offers open 800-hour free courses in the areas of live action and animation, CAV has a “Production Center” that carries out independent productions and productions for the city’s Culture Department, in addition to supporting local producers. The research methodology was based on conducting in-depth interviews with the aim of identifying perceptions about CAV, articulated in reports produced by social actors who were/are part of the Center's community. Through qualitative analysis of the material, we sought to investigate the points of convergence between the life stories of the subjects interviewed and CAV. As main considerations, the research points out possible impacts generated by the presence of public and free training centers such as CAV in local scenarios of audiovisual production, highlighting their role regarding democratization of the audiovisual field through the entry of new actors in the Brazilian productive scenario.