Physically or sexually abused children are extremely vulnerable. Alone, they can never stand up for themselves.

However, when a witness reports the abuse, a network is created to protect the child, including the public power, child protective councils and NGOs fighting for children’s rights. The abuser is cornered, whereas the victim becomes stronger.

To fight this kind of violence, the Administration of Belo Horizonte, capital city of the third largest Brazilian state, had to make the importance of reporting the abuse known.

We, then, presented the idea of shooting an old optical illusion trick to illustrate the lack of balance that happens when a child is abused.

In a studio, we built an Ames Room, whose distorted structure creates the illusion of absolute lack of proportion between the actors: the child looked even smaller than she really was, while the man looked gigantic.

Then, the actors switched positions in the room and, with absolutely no computer effects, the child got bigger and bigger, whereas he man got smaller and smaller.

With a distorted room and the simple movement made by the actors, we could show how reporting the abuse can strengthen children who, up to that point, were helpless.