FAR FROM THE SPOTLIGHT

In 2023, VEJA gave La Blogothèque carte blanche the opportunity to shed light on what usually goes unseen: the life and work of the people making the VEJA sneakers. After two years of work, the result is a documentary about the reality of those who, every day, grow, produce, collect and transform the raw materials that bring our sneakers to life.

At the core of VEJA’s principles lies transparency. Since 2005, we’ve committed to telling it all, writing it all down, from our achievements to our limitations, with no filter. Still, it can be difficult for people to realise the work that is done in the field in Brazil, from sourcing to the collection of raw materials. Nobody really understands what it means to use wild Amazonian rubber, to produce organic cotton, or to transform plastic bottles into an ecological fabric.

That’s why, in 2023, VEJA gave full creative freedom to La Blogothèque.
Led by Christophe “Chryde” Abric, the French collective is more used to working with musical artists than with brands. We decided to send a team directly where it all happens: at the heart of the communities that work to make VEJA sneakers come to life. Fully immersed, the crew began to understand every step of an intricate ecosystem.

In Far From The Spotlight, the Franco-Canadian director paints four unvarnished portraits. Richard, a factory foreman; Irisnete, a rubber tapper harvesting latex in the Amazon; Osvaldo, whose family has grown cotton for generations; and Luênia, who runs several cooperatives of catadores (waste pickers) open up in front of the camera. They share their emotions, sometimes painful pasts, ambitions, and hopes for the future. In their own ways, separated by thousands of kilometers, these individuals tell the story of a complex land: its disparities, but also the invisible ties that bind it together.