You Paulo Gustavo: the achievements and the dangers of the initiative that cannot repeat the mistakes of the past

You Paulo Gustavo: the achievements and the dangers of the initiative that cannot repeat the mistakes of the past


By offering 3.862 billion reais to the artistic class, the law cannot be bureaucratic, demand financial eligibility from those in difficulty, nor pulverize the ideological cultural battle for the country

The government, through the Minister of Culture, Margareth Menezes, published this Thursday 11, the decree for the Law Paul Gustavfinally comes into effect. But what is this law? What is the difference compared to other laws to help the cultural sector? What can be learned from the mistakes of other existing cultural aid laws? And what can change in the life of Brazilians, professionals of the sector or not, who produce any kind of artistic expression?

What’s the law?

The law named after the comedian who died in 2021, a victim of Covid 19, provides for the transfer of 3.862 billion reais to the states, municipalities and the Federal District, and the amount will be divided as follows: 2 billion reais will go to the states and R $1.8 billion for municipalities. Starting Friday 12, states and municipalities will have up to 60 days to register the action plans on a Ministry of Culture platform. All selected projects must be linked to social actions.

Who can apply?

Any Brazilian, whether or not represented by a production company, who has a cultural project in mind: launch an album, stage a play, write a book, produce a podcast, etc. registration that will be announced in your city and fill in the fields within the deadline that will be established. The projects with the best chances of approval are those that manage to fit into social contexts that represent Brazilian peoples, cultures and regions. It is necessary to write a text that justifies their existence and that convinces the reviewer that such an initiative will be worthwhile, not only for inflating one’s artistic ego, but above all for its social impact.

What should be the entry criteria

They have not yet been disclosed, as the federal government has given the freedom to states and municipalities to write their own statutes. The Aldir Blanc Act of 2020, another similar mechanism, also created to help artists in the pandemic years, used the same logic as Proac, the Cultural Action Program of São Paulo. It appropriated the same type of public notice, the same registration criteria and the same methodology to accelerate the implementation of the law in the state. Both ask for a project introductory text, some other justification text, and a detailed budget of everything that will be spent, from press relations to travel, among other details. The Paulo Gustavo law should follow the same path. And this is where the yellow lights come on.

How to make the law fairer?

1. Flexibility

Proac and Aldir Blanc failed on the same point: the request for a series of documents proving the financial honesty of the proposers. That is: if the name was dirty in the square, no money. But how can a project designed to help people in difficulty demand that they don’t owe a penny in the square? Many people who should have been helped were stopped because, theoretically, they were going through difficulties.

2. Debureaucratization

Platforms also end up burdening proposers with requirements that could be revised. They ask, for example, that a musician who has plans to make an album sends a song recorded in video or audio. These are costs that could be saved, as there is no requirement for the musician to actually use that recording in the final product.

3. Ideological orientation

Since the rules for selecting projects are in the hands of states and municipalities, we can see, in the worst case, the regionalization of ideological battles. What happened centrally in Brasilia during the Bolsonaro government, when projects driven by thoughts considered to be left-wing were vetoed and right-wing ones won public tenders, would now respect the political alignment of the government in each region. Thus, theoretically, a film or a play about the years of the dictatorship in the country would have a great chance of not being approved if inserted by Paulo Gustavo in states governed by right-wing politicians, as in the case of São Paulo. Just as the release of an album followed by concerts throughout the country proposed by a gospel or sertanejo group aligned with right-wing thinking would not pass in the regions administered by left-wing politicians.

Source: Terra

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