We hope you haven’t forgotten about the long-awaited movie about the legend and 5x World Champion Fernando Terere. We’ve all seen him fight and we’ve heard about his charisma, but there is so much about his story that gets lost in time and translation. Favela Jiu Jitsu founder, Nico Ball, and BJJ journalist Ricardo Ammendolia talk a little about it on the BJJ GOONS Podcast but other than that Fernando’s story is a true favela legend, a thing of gossip and rumors.
COVID kept the film crew from traveling to the U.S. for some of their final shots and for a while, it seemed like the whole crew had disappeared. Jefferson, the actor that played Leandro Martins, was at so many jiu-jitsu tournaments we thought for sure he had quit the film and was just chilling with Buda, his BJJ instructor from Terere Kids Project.
Luckily that is not the case!
Our head of production in Brazil, Jonata Samambaia, assures us that the film is still underway. In fact, he spent the weekend helping the crew populate their set with a full crew of kids from the Diamante Bruto and Apenas Um Filho social projects in São Paulo.
Check out some of the behind-the-scenes footage of The Black Belt Movie as the film is one of the most inspirational moments in Jiu-Jitsu!
