Content
Music
Resistance and resilience. In moments of hardship, injustice, or transformation, communities have turned to rhythm, melody, and dance to preserve identity, voice dissent, celebrate survival, and imagine new futures.
From the poetic protest songs of Nueva Canción to the bold affirmations of Reggaetón Feminista, from the gritty social storytelling of Cumbia Villera to the artistic rebellion of Tropicalismo, these genres reveal how sound becomes a form of courage. Ancestral dances carry memory and spiritual strength across generations; Samba pulses with joy forged in adversity; Jazz transforms struggle into improvisation, freedom, and reinvention.
This festival invites us to listen deeply and perform bravely—to recognize music not only as entertainment, but as testimony, resistance, healing, and hope. Through these traditions, students explore how artists respond to their worlds and how creative expression can challenge, sustain, and unite communities across borders.
Visual Arts
Resistance and resilience can manifest differently depending on one’s perspective—a perspective shaped by both shared cultural identity and personal experience. We will use visual arts as a platform to explore these two concepts through the varied cultural lenses of our student participants. The exploration will be framed within a Brazilian context, highlighting artistic voices that address resistance and resilience through textile-based art in both two and three dimensions.
This topic will offer students the opportunity to engage their creativity and conceptual thinking, and encourage them to consider the important relationship between medium and intention.
We ask that each student prepare an original artwork for the Festival that speaks to the concepts of resistance and resilience from their own cultural perspective and individual experience. Both "culture" and "resistance" are open to interpretation. For the purposes of this festival, however, "culture" refers, at least in part, to the national or ethnic culture with which a student identifies or is identified. Any aspect of that culture where the student identifies resistance or resilience—whether to challenge injustice, assert identity, or envision liberation—is welcome.
During the festival, students will have the opportunity to engage with Brazilian artists whose work embodies resistance and resilience through media, imagery, and technique. Students will then work collaboratively using textile media and techniques to create a large-scale installation addressing the festival theme.
Theater
For the theater component of this year’s festival, all participating schools will collaborate on a full production of The Good Person of Szechwan by Bertolt Brecht, adapted specifically for SAAC. Each pair or trio of schools will be responsible for rehearsing and preparing a designated section of the adaptation in advance, ensuring that all parts contribute to a unified dramaturgical vision.
Students will be assigned roles and are expected to have their lines fully memorized before arriving in São Paulo. During the festival, joint rehearsals will bring all groups together to integrate the sections into one cohesive performance. These rehearsals will focus on maintaining stylistic coherence within Brecht’s epic theatre framework, emphasizing narration, gestus, critical distance, and ensemble awareness.
Two to three teachers will guide each section, with the possibility of collaborative direction across schools to guarantee artistic unity. The on-site workshops will concentrate on refining transitions, rhythm, and staging choices so that the final presentation functions as a single, coherent epic production.
Film
This year, students participating in the film portion of the festival will focus on creating a single collaborative short fictional film that explores the festival's theme of "Resistance and Resilience." Students from each school will work together as one crew to create a five-minute film set in a single location, inspired by the Oscar-winning movie "AINDA ESTOU AQUI" (I'm Still Here).
"AINDA ESTOU AQUI" tells the story of a family living through extraordinary times during the Brazilian military dictatorship in the 1970s in Rio de Janeiro. The challenges they face force them to resist, in many ways. We see them years later and learn how resistance led to resilience in their lives, highlighting human strength and perseverance. The film illustrates how cinema can serve as an artistic medium for exploring the inner journeys of human beings, using narrative and visual storytelling elements that connect directly to our festival's theme. We look forward to welcoming everyone to this collaborative filmmaking experience.
