Veja highlights its invisible heroes in a short film at the heart of Brazil The brand makes us travel from Paris to the Amazon rainforest in 30 minutes top time
Since 2005, Veja has built its reputation not on mystery, but on a radical promise: transparency. Yet the truth is often more complex than figures and press releases. While its popularity in Europe keeps growing louder and stronger, its reality unfolds far from Paris and its misty streets — in Brazil, through a quiet effort that begins in the Amazon, from cotton cultivation to the transformation of plastic bottles into ecological fabric. A silent effort indeed, but one that deserves to be brought into the spotlight to understand the internal narrative that has made Veja the powerful and beloved brand it is today.
In 2023, Veja sought to close this gap and give visibility to what usually remains unseen by partnering with La Blogothèque, a Parisian collective known for its ability to capture music with raw, intimate humanity. Two years and many successes later, the brand presented just a few days ago at the Grand Rex in Paris “Far from the spotlight”, a short film shot in the heart of Brazil by Christophe “Chryde” Abric & Clémence Deverre — a production team given a single instruction: to shed light on the behind-the-scenes of Veja and the models Europe can’t get enough of, one pair of shoes at a time. The film crew flew to Brazil, immersing themselves in the communities that cultivate, harvest and transform the raw materials, telling the world the story of a complex ecosystem often misunderstood.
Out of this quest for truth came a 30-minute documentary film, directed by Franco-Canadian filmmaker Jérémie Battaglia. A project that offered the audience four unvarnished portraits, far from the polished tone typical of corporate communication, creating a true “cultural UFO,” as explained by Sébastien Kopp, co-founder of Veja. Over the course of these 30 minutes, viewers meet the essential souls and hands behind Veja’s daily life: Richard, a factory foreman; Irisnete, whose hands tap latex in the depths of the Amazon; Osvaldo, heir to a long line of cotton farmers; and Luênia, who leads with strength the cooperatives of waste pickers. All are separated by thousands of kilometers (from Nova Hartz to Três Pontas via Poços de Caldas…), yet united by the same mission: making Veja an ethical and high-quality brand.
As Jérémie Battaglia explains, the aim of the documentary was to “show those who are rarely seen, or only through a distorted lens.” Through these life stories, the film tells a larger narrative: that of a complex land, with all its social disparities, but also the invisible ties connecting the men and women united in the shared project of creating the sneaker. This documentary, the first true cinematic documentation about Veja in 20 years, is a powerful reminder, concluded by the co-founders: “People often see Veja as a ‘cool’ brand, but they cannot imagine the work behind it. What really matters is all the often invisible people who make this project possible.” A moving tribute to humanity, effort, and the land, woven together with an original score by Antoine Bédard, turning the sneaker into far more than a pair of shoes: a bridge between two worlds.
