Abstract

Fatec Paradiso is a university extension project that intends to show alternative films, national and international, to students of Fatec Cotia - public institution of technological higher education in the State of São Paulo, and to the community in general, free of charge, in public spaces in the municipality of Cotia, or on the premises of that institution. The exhibitions aim to contribute to the formation of audiences for cinema, to raise awareness about the right to use public spaces and to contribute to a more comprehensive formation, not only focused on performance in the labor market. With this initiative, it is intended to provide a region in need of cinemas, a film program that allows aesthetic appreciation, and the discussion of themes related to the contemporary world or recent history. Since its inception in 2016, exhibitions have been held in different squares in the municipality, open to the entire population of the country. In the exhibitions, testimonies were collected from viewers - students and non-students, about the construction of relationships between the themes of the films and their life experiences and about the importance of carrying out activities of this type in public spaces. Fatec Paradiso’s assessment was based on the principle that activities involving art, as a way of transforming a given reality, enable the creation of new cultural policies. In this communication, we will discuss what the project represents for a peripheral region of greater São Paulo and the use of cinema as an educational experience.