Favela Rising Documentary ”Film Blitz” Wednesday, November 9, 2005 ImaginAsian Theatre Reviewed by: Shareshten Senior

These days, if you’re more of a mainstream film attendee as I am, there are very few films that really show us something eye-opening, factual and all-together attitude changing. Favela Rising (2005) is one of those films; from beginning to end this film lights the screen with morale, character and the true spirit of heroism.

Favela Rising, winner of both the Tribeca Film Festival’s Best New Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award and the New York International Latino Film Festival’s award for Best Documentary, takes place in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The word favela means a place for poor people, people who barely have more than a cardboard box for a home. The closest translation we have is ghetto, although American ghettos are in no way comparable to those of Brazil.

The film follows the life of the narrator, Anderson Sa, and his quest to stop the violence, police corruption, killing, and drug trafficking which are widespread in the favelas. Most of all he wants to give the children of the favelas something to hang onto, something to look forward to and aspire to be other than drug trafficking.

Using “music as an instrument of change”, Anderson builds the Afro-Reggae movement from the ground up. The story follows his life and work from his time of trafficking drugs to the tragedies that changed his ways and ultimately led to his constructing an organization to unite his favela. Anderson Sa started a revolution that positively changed many lives around him including his own.

The cinematography and the scenery of Rio are beautifully shot and every camera movement is purposeful and possesses metaphorical meaning and balance. The characters are interviewed and presented in black and white stills with their names typed across the bottom of the photographs. Resembling a criminal mug shot, this style represents the stereotypes laden on the citizens of the favelas by the corrupt “Policia,” which reap all the benefits of drug profits and gun sales. The story is strongly backed by statistical information, testimonials and actual footage of the corruption and unjust events that divide the city.

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Favela Rising was brought to ImaginAsian theatre by an organization called Film Blitz. I was very fortunate to speak with the people responsible for bringing New York this fabulous film. This is Film Blitz’s fourth year running thanks to the efforts of Black Robb, Leo Curbelo and Nectarios Leonidas.

Curbelo confesses, “It’s very hard to get good films.” Film Blitz goes through many political, interactive and hip-hop cultured films before the three find a gem. They look to Film organizations, sponsors and venues for support. They have large brand name sponsors like Heineken, Finlandia and ZipCar, but also smaller fish like Teatro La Tea, a small Latino and multicultural theatre located on the Lower East Side.

Favela Rising will be shown at a number of other film festivals around the world including festival in South Africa, Barcelona, Marseille, and the Dominican Republic. With help from the Hip Hop Association (H2O), and The New York International Latino Film Festival (NYILFF), Film Blitz was able to include this work of art in their presentation.

“A whole lot of love went into this project,” says Rolando Brown, Director of Brand Development for the Hip Hop Association. H2O was responsible in part for organizing the presentation of the Film Blitz. It is a not-for-profit organization that focuses on bringing quality hip-hop culture to the public. “This man and his movement ultimately found ways to save lives through hip-hop and funk,” Brown adds.

The NYILFF, which was sponsored and founded by HBO, helped to sponsor Film Blitz. The night’s special guest MC was Calixto Chinchilla, the Executive Director for NYILFF. He attended the screening to present the directors of Favela, Matt Mochary and Jeff Zimbalist, with the engraved award. The NYILFF also arranged a Q&A session with the directors following the screening, however it did get cut short due to the prior film running over the given time; the ImaginAsian Theatre had to close, however Zimbalist and Mochary did slip in a quick word.

“We were able to witness, firsthand, the power of belief,” Mochary comments regarding the most compelling part of directing Favela.

The movement is definitely something to celebrate. Afro-Reggae is now in nine Favelas with over 2000 members. Young children who once spoke of their dreams to be drug lords have joined and are no longer on a path of violence and corruption.

“It’s as if the spinal cord of the Favela has always been broken,” Anderson Sa says of the problem that lead him to change his life. I guess we could say Sa is on a mission to rebuild the spinal cord vertebra by vertebra. He also realizes that this is a very personalized mission. He was asked to expand his movement to other favelas and though there has been some expansion he was aware that this is not something you can pop-up all over the place like a McDonalds. It could lose its authenticity. He also comments that his group lives by beliefs and unifying theories on life that may not be embraced by other favelas. The main point of the film is to inform and inspire action.

Favela Rising will be released in theatres in 2006. The directors hope to have it released in January or February, however there isn’t a concrete release date yet. If you are curious about the topic there are a couple of films that cover similar subject matter in Rio de Janeiro. One of the more well known ones is: Cidade de Deus (2002), which translates to City of God; it is available with an excellent cast of voices in the dubbed version on Amazon.com, though I enjoyed it more with subtitles.

You can find out more about Favela Rising’s directors, screenings and even view the trailer on the web at www.favelarising.com. If you would like to learn more about Film Blitz you can contact them at: www.filmblitz.org. To contact H2O you can log onto www.h2oiff.org. For the New York International Latino Film Festival you can log onto www.nylatinofilm.com. If you would like to find out more about what is playing at the ImaginAsian Theatre you can log onto www.theimaginasian.com.