An Enriching and Thoughtful Day at Rio2C

It is the day after my visit to the fascinating and mentally invigorating Rio2C conference — which concludes this Sunday at Rio de Janeiro’s futuristic City of Arts — and my first question to my new amigo, ChatGPT, is simple: What exactly is Rio2C, how did it begin, and why?

My robotic companion replies:

“Rio2C is the largest annual creativity and innovation conference in Latin America, bringing together professionals from film, television, music, gaming, publishing, advertising and technology. It began in 2018, created by Brazilian entertainment executive Rafael Lazaroni as a platform connecting creativity, business, innovation and entertainment.”

And indeed, as this perpetually curious observer wandered through the sprawling event on Thursday afternoon, I encountered a rich menagerie of lectures, exhibitions, films and debates capable of stimulating even the most fatigued imagination.

But one must also be careful about what one absorbs.

At a GlobalStage lecture titled More Than Words: When Expression Becomes Creation, Hollywood actor Will Smith appeared on screen offering the familiar motivational advice that “the best things in life are on the other side of fear” — a variation, perhaps, of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s famous line that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

Of course, Smith himself famously struck presenter Chris Rock during the 2022 Oscars after a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith — an incident that earned him a 10-year ban from Academy ceremonies. Fearless, perhaps, but also controversial.

More compelling insights at the same forum came from the ancient Stoic philosophers.

Epictetus, the Greek thinker who lived between 55 and 135 AD, advised: “Concentrate on what you can control,” reminding listeners that while we cannot govern external events, we can govern our reactions to them.

Another Stoic philosopher, Seneca — adviser to Emperor Nero — observed: “Our fears are always more numerous than our perils,” meaning that human beings often suffer more in imagination than in reality.

Then came the more questionable advice attributed to Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg: “Avoid difficult conversations; they usually make problems worse.” One suspects many marriages, governments and businesses might disagree.

One of the most practical discussions I attended featured São Paulo consultant Celso Grecco, who spoke about the growing epidemic of isolation — a problem spreading globally and increasingly visible in Brazil despite the country’s famously social culture.

In a city like Rio de Janeiro, where draft beers are shared in noisy groups and birthday celebrations seem endless, Grecco’s observations were surprising. He argued that excessive cellphone dependence and digital isolation contribute to urban violence, anxiety, impatience and what he described as the “immediatism” of modern life.

His upcoming book, The Decision the World Needs, explores these themes further — and after hearing him speak, I look forward to reading it.

Another standout panel at StoryVillage focused on the future of the audiovisual industry and featured journalist Cristina Padiglione alongside executives from YouTube Latin America, Netflix Brasil, Globoplay and Conspiração Filmes.

The consensus was clear: by 2030, audiovisual content will move more fluidly across multiple platforms — cinemas, streaming services, broadcast television, YouTube and new vertical-video formats — but emotional connection with audiences will remain the decisive factor for success.

Executives from Netflix, Globoplay, YouTube and Conspiração discussed how future productions will likely enjoy longer “distribution journeys” across several exhibition windows rather than remaining locked into exclusive platform releases.

According to Elisabetta Zenatti of Netflix Brasil, Brazilian audiovisual production is becoming increasingly global. She noted that 60 Brazilian Netflix originals have reached the platform’s worldwide Top 10 over the past five years. Financing productions, she predicted, may become easier as projects circulate through cinemas, television and streaming simultaneously instead of belonging exclusively to one platform.

The panel also highlighted the rapid rise of vertical video and experimental storytelling formats aimed at younger audiences. Julia Rueff said Globoplay is testing new narrative models, including vertical soap operas, while YouTube executive Patricia Muratori argued that documentaries and other genres can also thrive in vertical formats.

Despite the technological changes reshaping entertainment, the panelists agreed on one enduring truth: emotionally resonant storytelling remains the industry’s most valuable asset.

Zenatti stressed that Netflix still prioritizes ambitious, high-quality long-form productions capable of generating debate and cultural impact.

“Emotional connection,” she said, “is what determines success today — or in 2030.”

Cinema itself was passionately defended as irreplaceable.

Renata Brandão of Conspiração Filmes argued that the theatrical experience — “watching together in a dark room” — must coexist with streaming and future digital platforms rather than compete against them.

She also warned that public policies remain essential to keeping Brazil’s audiovisual industry healthy and internationally competitive.

The discussion reflected a broader debate unfolding throughout the global entertainment business: how can cinemas survive in the modern “attention economy,” where audiences are increasingly fragmented across countless digital platforms?

Industry leaders at Rio2C insisted that cinemas still offer something streaming can never fully replicate — collective emotional experience, ritual and human connection.

And perhaps, in an age increasingly dominated by screens, algorithms and artificial intelligence, that may prove more valuable than ever.