Diogo Ueno was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1981. His father's parents are Japanese who moved to Brazil during the World War II, and his mother has Portuguese, Italian and African mixed background.
He immigrated by himself to Toronto, Canada, when he was nineteen years old to pursue his dream of studying filmmaking. He attended Trebas Institute in Toronto, where he studied filmmaking in 2004. Since then, he directed three experimental short films, being In the Moment his first full-length film.
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In early 2006, exactly six years had passed since I left Brazil in search of new horizons abroad. More precisely, Toronto, Canada. Because of circumstances that escaped my control, I had no opportunities to visit my relatives and my country, during all this time. An enormous feeling of patriotism started to grow within. An honest and instinctive feeling that made me acknowledge my roots and accept and comprehend better my country and its problems.
More than that, it made me question myself and shape my values, based essentially on the "abandonment" of my country and the substitution of it for another one. Was that so-called patriotic feeling actually a feeling of remorse misinterpreted by my conscience, who before, tried to renegade its own rusty country in favor of a newer, more interesting and more fruitful one? Suddenly, as if a subconscious "button" had been activated, questions and more questions started to cloud my mind, which in turn triggered answers that molded more and more values.
These values guided me to images of my people, in areas of my gigantic country which I had never been, even when I lived in Brazil. Postponing my return seemed unsustainable to me at that point, so I decided to go back. It was then, that I had the idea of embarking on a journey through the Northeast of the country and go after those people I left behind. Get to know them. Be exposed to and experience whatever was happening with them, and listen to what they had to tell at the very moment I crossed their way and they crossed mine.
We spent sixty days on the road, my wife (the co-producer Renata Teixeira) and I, on board of a small car. Carrying with ourselves nothing but our bags of clothes and another one of video equipment, and recording the various situations we encountered along the thirty cities through the nine states that constitute the brazilian's Northeast. There was no specific planning for the trip. We made a pact in which we compromised ourselves to be alert and trusted our intuition in order to choose what direction to go, what city, town, or village to stop by, and what person to approach. A simply unforgettable experience that made my patriotic feeling increase even more.
We live in such a hectic world. We have chosen to isolate ourselves and care only about our own businesses. Needing to be away from places and other people to realize how much they mean to us.
During those sixty days, meeting extraordinary people and being exposed to their lives at that moment, allowed me to confirm that I am not alone with my own experiences, and that wherever I am, my country and my people will never be away from me again.