Brazilian Man Living in Hospital for 46 Years Creates Animated Cartoon

12/19/2014 - 09h25

The games played by seven children with infantile paralysis and who spent their childhood at the Intensive Care Unit of Sao Paulo's Clínicas Hospital were turned into a series of cartoons created by the group's leader.

Paulo Henrique Machado, a 47 year-old man who has been hooked up to an artificial respirator at Clínicas Hospital since the age of one, is the mentor and screenwriter for the animation "Brincadeirantes", finished this week. Folha revealed his story last year.

The ten minute long pilot episode was made possible by a collective financing that raised R$ 120,000 (US$ 45,000). 1,612 donors cooperated with the project.

"It was a painful process for making me remember the friends who passed away, but, at the same time, it was challenging", he says.

Among the characters featuring in the first and future episodes, Machado and his friend Léca (Eliana Zagui, his best friend and bed neighbour at the hospital's ICU) are the only ones who survived.

Lying on the bed, both completed high school. Paulo took courses in computer graphics and scripting.

He is an animation fan; he particularly enjoys the ones produced by British Studio Aardman Animations (specialized in stop-motion), which characters have disabilities. Through the internet, he befriended the "Ice Age" (2002) director Carlos Saldanha, who later visited him at the hospital.

Paulo intended to fight prejudices by writing his own and his friends' stories. "Despite the limitations, we had fun. From the bedroom window, we played with kites.
The hospital was my kindergarten and continues to be my home."

Paulo, Peter and Anderson had their respiratory systems paralysed by polio, but they could still move their arms. Eliana, Claudia and Tania, however, could not. They used their mouth to draw and write.

In the animation, Paulo recounts a trip to Playcenter Amusement Park. His character, Léco, tries to play a fun fair game, but touched employees end up giving him the prize, without letting him play. "I don't want toys, I want to play", Léco complains.

In real life, Paulo enjoys movies and computer games. "Every day when I wake up, I look at Eliana's bed and say: 'I'm glad we're still alive'." And they are very much alive.

Eliana paints pictures using her mouth, writes her second book and is currently preparing to see the first one ["Iron Lung", Belaletra Publishing House, 2012] become a play. Both projects are for 2015.

Paulo tries to make partnerships to broadcast his pilot episode and new ones.

Paulo's teacher, Bruno Saggese, who is also the producer and storyboard artist on the animation, says he was surprised with the vitality and the talent of his student. "We think an ICU is a sad place, but this is something else."

He says he intends to find open or cable TV channels and internet companies that may be interested in embracing the project.

"My dream is to produce a feature-length film", says a smiling Paulo, staring at his animation on the computer screen.

Translated by JULIANA CALDERARI

Read the article in the original language

	Carlos Cecconello/Folhapress
	Paulo Henrique Machado (47) has been hooked up to an artificial respirator at Clínicas Hospital since the age of one