‘My friend Lorenzo’: young autistic man from DF is the protagonist of a film about affection, empathy and transformation through music | Federal District

“Music is my communication with the world. It’s my language with people and the joy of my life.”

This is how the young Lorenzo Barreto, 19, describes what the song means to him. Lorenzo has autism spectrum disorder (TEA) and is the protagonist of the film “My Friend Lorenzo” — a documentary that tells the story of complicity of more than 15 years between the young man and the filmmaker and musician André Luiz Oliveira, who directed the production (see trailer below).

“Lorenzo is one of the most musical people I know. He lives music completely. […] When we met, he was 4 years old and I didn’t stop filming him until I was 19. With no idea what I was going to do, much less that it would result in a feature film”, says André Luiz.

Trailer for the Brazilian film ‘My Friend Lorenzo’

The documentary from Brasilia has its premiere this Tuesday (2), World Autism Awareness Day (see details below).

In 2007, the music therapist Clarisse Prestes He received little Lorenzo Barreto, aged 4 at the time, in the music therapy setting at his home in Brasília.

“Music is the center of his life. What I did was make it easier, so that he could use music to express himself. He was an almost non-verbal boy, and music fulfilled this function of structuring him”, says Clarisse. She then invited André Luiz to record some videos of the sessions, on tapes.

“The moment I looked at him, it was a great empathy. The following 15 years confirmed that there, at that moment, there was a meeting of souls, of energies, of people who needed each other to get to know each other better. And that’s what happened,” says André.

From then on, it would always be the three of them. Clarisse introduced the world of music to Lorenzo, who presented his uniqueness to André, who in turn, returned Lorenzo’s affection and friendship.

Music can be used as complementary therapy in the treatment of patients with various disorders. In the case of Lorenzo, who has TEAmore than a therapy, music was the way he found to express himself and communicate with the world.

“Lorenzo’s musical gift, besides being something very beautiful, was also what allowed us to access the gateway to his private world, because one of the biggest challenges of autism is this introspection. We have always used music as a way of dialogue with him”, says Aurea Daia, Lorenzo’s mother.

Music therapist Clarisse Prestes explains that her way of working is based on interaction. “We can improvise together or separately, we can sing or just play, we can be silent. Everything related to sound can be used”, she says.

For psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Inês Catão, Lorenzo’s history with music therapy highlights the effectiveness of therapeutic work that goes against market pressures. “Music for Lorenzo is not pure delight. It performs a structuring function”, highlights.

“The film narrates several years of clinical work with an autistic boy who organizes himself around music, his specific interest and the enormous improvement in his quality of life, without ceasing to be autistic”, says the doctor.

Friendship between filmmaker and young autistic person is the theme of the film ‘My Friend Lorenzo’

The premiere of the feature film “My friend Lorenzo” is this Tuesday (2), at 7pm, at Cine Cultura Liberty Mall, in Brasília. After the session, there will be a short musical performance by Lorenzo Barreto and a conversation with the film team. The documentary will be on display from Thursday (4).

When looking back and seeing everything that was built over these 15 years, director André Luiz Oliveira says that the feelings that remain are the best possible. Not only for the film — which was awarded at the Primavera do Cine festival of 2023from Vigo, Spain — but for his friendship with Lorenzo (see video above).

“The music that flows through him comes from a very deep region of his being and is like the air he breathes. Playing with him, listening to him and being heard by him was and continues to be extremely pleasurable, luminous, challenging”, says André .

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