It's strange to write about Éder Santos' video on the day that two airplanes have destroyed The World Trade Center. If I hadn't seen it take place outside of my apartment, I might have relegated it in my mind to the place of fiction. Santos' work often questions the reality of the information the media present us with. Particularly in his case, living in Brazil, a country where the majority of information is received from foreign broadcasts. Truth is often read through (poorly translated) subtitles. Events from the United States, Latin America, Europe, are broadcast in English, Spanish or French rather than Portuguese. In the past, Éder has traveled to the American desert, Death Valley only to realize that Las Vegas is a closer reality to the Desert in My Mind. He has found that images were once projected from the eyes of God in his film, 'Enredando as Pessoas' (Intriguing People). He has challenged the force and true nature of that super power, 'Essa Coisa Nervosa' (This Nervous Thing). 'Apollo Project' poses the question, what if the American space program was a fictionalized event created in a secret television studio? Another episode of Hollywood production, staged as a widespread media manipulation? "I can't affirm nothing... In fact, all this history we know was faked." While researching this project, Santos conducted street interviews with Brazilians who agreed that they had no proof that man ever travelled to the Moon. The images of 'Apollo Project' have been entirely constructed in miniature. Fiction is often a far more believable truth. The film quality of 'Apollo' Project was created through processing and degrading the original video image. It is a believable fake. The soundtrack is meant to emulate satellite recordings that have been recorded from outer space, as well as referencing the typical music from documentaries of our 'true' space program but also, its related fictions.
– Stephen Vitiello
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Sound Stephen Vitiello, editing Éder Santos, Pedro Vilela,
with Rodrigo Signoreley
Éder Santos ° 1960 Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Lives and works in Brazil
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