I went to UAB tonight to see Favela Rising. I skipped my film class screening tonight (I’ll just borrow Red River from my dad) to go see it. It was the movie I really wanted to see at the Sidewalk Film Festival last year but chickened out when I couldn’t find anyone to go with me. I am getting over that. Anyway, the main reason I wanted to go is because co-director Jeff Zimbalist was going to take part in a panel discussion after the film. He is going to be on the UA campus tomorrw, but I have to work.
The film is great.
It is a documentary that focuses on the story of Anderson Sa, a former drug dealer in Rio de Janeiro who, after the death of his brother, he decides enough is enough and starts Afro-Reggae, a group that started with a Xeroxed magazine and grew into a full cultural organization based on Brazilian hip-hop.
The film was amazing and was a reminder of my mission in Sao Paulo, especially when I was in Americanopolis and Sao Bernardo do Campo. Hundreds of houses are stacked on the edge of hills in the favelas. There is a rift between the ghettos and the police that resembles nothing that we have here in the U.S. The film documents the massacre that was carried out by the millitary police in Rio to avenge the execution of four police officers. Of the more than twenty people killed by the police in the favela, none were involved in the shootings.
It is this which prompts Sa to take action. Through Afro-Reggae, the band, he manages to preach the message of non-violence to his and other communities. He manages to gain the respect of the drug lords who want the future generation to escape the trap in which they, themselves, have fallen into. Afro-Reggae’s cultural centers keep the kids off the streets through workshops on music, dance, and even technology.
After the film, there was a panel discussion with Zimbalist, the leader of a local outreach ministry, and a woman who (I am pretty sure) was the Birmingham Chief of Police. The panel talked mainly about how similar programs could benefit Birminham communities. An issue that arose in the film and in the discussion was the idea that such programs must originate from inside the communities if they are to succeed. I agree. People have to have a feeling of ownership in such a program if it is to have any effect.
The evening was interesting for many reasons. As an artist struggling to find his voice, the screening provided some insights. As someone in the Alabama community it shed further light on the type of programs that are being organized in Birmingham (and elsewhere, I’m sure).
I just wish I could go tomorrow.
Listen: NPR story on Favela Rising.
Rated: NR, but probably would recieve an R for language and violence
[rating:4]