The Bubble Busker

I first heard of the Rio de Janeiro Film Scholarship in September whilst visiting my family in Basque Country after 4 months working in Peru. I immeadiately thought of Nuno, my brother from another mother. I first met Nuno five years ago as we both made our first films as part of a youth initiative in our hometown Bournemouth. Nuno moved to England from Portuguese island Madeira at the age of 8. He grew up in Bournemouth and lived for 8 years with his mother, siblings and step-father. At 16 Nuno began living on the streets of Bournemouth but luckily through Millennium Volunteers quickly found board at the YMCA. It was in Millennium Volunteers alleyway offices that I first met Nuno and discovered I was not alone in my blind desire to make films. After maintaining on-off contact we found eachother at Bournemouth's film Mekkah, the Odeon Cinema. Working together again we spurred eachother's passions this time not only for film but travelling. After I returned from Peru the first time after 10 weeks with volunteer initiative Platform2 I showed Nuno my photos and urged him to apply to the same scheme run by Christian Aid and the Department for International Development. Later that year he travelled and volunteered around Kenya, taking with him a Canon 550d camera. Its now three years later and we live together in Leeds studying at the Northern Film School. Nuno taught me to use his camera and with this skill I carried and filmed my way around Peru this summer working with Canadian non-profit Operation Groundswell. This is Nuno's story. At first he didn't believe he could lead a piece on-screen so rather than splice together our travel footage I asked him to teach us the wonderful skill that took him around Eastern Europe this summer.