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 My close friend and co-filmmaker Matt Mochary called me on the phone from a favela (shantytown) in Brazil. He told me to pack my bags because he'd found the story we'd been searching for. A week earlier, I'd sat with Matt at a Mexican bar in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and expressed my wish for more nonfiction stories in the news, television, and theaters about communities that succeed, that overcome great adversity, that unite and reach and achieve. In short - communities that work.
It seems most people's image of global harmony or disharmony is predominantly shaped by the media. When I find myself surrounded by stories of the world falling apart, naturally I imagine the world as a place falling apart. The more access I have to stories of communities that work, the more I imagine a world in which people are also realizing change and breaking the odds stacked against them. I am attracted to these vital and inspiring stories because it is in them that I find myself the most activated and alive. On the phone, Matt told me of a chance meeting with the two leaders of a movement in the slums of Rio called AfroReggae. Here were a couple of broken individuals infected with idealism, eager for any chance to represent themselves, to share their winning prescription. I quit my job teaching editing and 10 days later was with Matt in Vigário Geral, Rio's most violent slum. Across the table from us sat José Junior and Anderson Sá. Over the next couple years Matt and I made many trips back to live in the favela with Anderson and Junior. We had taught youth from AfroReggae and a group called Nos do Cinema how to shoot with some of our DV equipment and would sometimes leave cameras with the children when we returned to New York. The idea was to encourage self-representation, to empower the youth using the same inside-out model of third world development preached and practiced by the AfroReggae movement itself. What was achieved was unique access to some of the more violent episodes of the favela and some of the most visceral and authentic scenes in the film. On one of my trips I found myself driving to the emergency room at a beat down public hospital in Rio after getting the call that Anderson had a freak accident and was paralyzed from the neck down. Anderson was a good friend by this point, and it was devastating to see him in full body traction, unable to move, in a room overcrowded with gunplay victims and the nearly dead. In a faint whisper, Anderson told us to film him. He told us this was the truth, this was part of his story. Just as suddenly as a man finds himself unable to move below his neck, Matt and my film had unexpectedly shifted. What had started as a more general investigation into the AfroReggae movement and the horrors of the favela had become the story of one man's fight to overcome. As Anderson faced the biggest obstacle of his life, a vast favela community held its breath, praying for a miracle to resurrect their leader. Favela Rising celebrates the strength of the human spirit to assert itself in the face of human rights violations, social injustice, and unexpected adversity. Chronicling the rise to greatness of the AfroReggae movement, the film shows how the music and culture of Brazil's underclass transform into a catalyst for grassroots social-change. But most of all, Favela Rising is the story of a community that works. The success of the film should be judged on how well it serves to activate its viewers; how well it inspires action. Jeff Zimbalist is co-director of Favela Rising -------------- From the Favela Rising website: Favela Rising documents a man and a movement, a city divided and a favela (Brazilian squatter settlement) united. Haunted by the murders of his family and many of his friends, Anderson Sá is a former drug-trafficker who turns social revolutionary in Rio de Janeiro's most feared slum. Through hip-hop music, the rhythms of the street, and Afro-Brazilian dance he rallies his community to counteract the violent oppression enforced by teenage drug armies and sustained by corrupt police. At the dawn of liberation, just as collective mobility is overcoming all odds and Anderson's grassroots Afro Reggae movement is at the height of its success, a tragic accident threatens to silence the movement forever. -------------- Director Zimbalist Jeff Zimbalist is an award-winning director and editor whose numerous documentary films have been broadcast on HBO, PBS, Women's Entertainment Television, Cinemax and various news programs. Among the many film festival awards Jeff has won is Best New Director at the Tribeca Film Festival. Jeff's work has been featured at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. He has produced educational and promotional films for over a dozen clients throughout the United States, in South Asia, and in Latin America. A Massachusetts Council of the Arts fellow, Jeff has also shot, directed, and edited a variety of fiction films and has provided media consulting services to the UNDP and various international nonprofit service organizations. Currently, Jeff is a faculty member at both the New York Film Academy and the Maine Photographic Workshops. His latest film Favela Rising is being released by THINKfilm and HBO/Cinemax Films. Matt Mochary - Director / Producer / Co-Cinematographer
Matt is a new filmmaker. Favela Rising is his first piece of co-direction and production. Before Favela Rising, Matt was a Partner at Spectrum Equity Investors, the founder and Chairman of Totality Corporation, the Chairman of AEKus Properties, and the founder of The Mochary Foundation, a charitable organization that promotes public education, www.mochary.org. Matt received his BA from Yale University and his MBA from Kellogg at Northwestern University. About AfroReggae Born out of desire to counteract the violent drug industry and police oppression in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Grupo Cultural AfroReggae - GCAR ("AfroReggae Cultural Group") was formed in January 1993, initially around AfroReggae Notícias (AfroReggae News), a newspaper designed to add value and disseminate black culture. The newspaper primarily targeted young people interested in reggae, soul, and hip-hop, among other musical genres. The group soon thereafter opened its first Núcleo Comunitário de Cultura ("Culture Community Center") in the Vigário Geral favela (a slum area) in 1993. In a short period of time, this center was offering its first workshops - dance, percussion, garbage recycling, soccer and capoeira - the foundations for new social projects. GCAR knew exactly what it was seeking with its programs: to offer a cultural and artistic education for adolescents living in slums. By affording local youth more chances of strengthening their citizenship, GCAR hoped to provide a viable path away from entanglement in the prevalent drug trade. In 1997, AfroReggae opened Centro Cultural AfroReggae Vigário Legal ("Vigário Legal AfroReggae Cultural Center"), a landmark in its history. With structured facilities within the community, they were able to enhance the quality of their programs and transform the initiative into a reference point for social and cultural practices in the city of Rio de Janeiro. In conjunction with workshops in music, capoeira, theater, hip hop and dance, Vigário also became the home for the "Criança Legal" project, designed to give support to preschool kids through programs aimed at socializing and literacy. Participant children's parents also take part in weekly meetings where subjects such as domestic violence and personal hygiene are discussed; they also receive basic-food baskets. Of all activities offered, music has been the major driver in attracting teenagers to participate in GCAR. The success attained by Banda AfroReggae, both in artistic terms and as a social-project model, has attracted other teenagers who want to follow this same path. Today there are three other bands that have also been making public presentations: Banda Makala Música e Dança, Afro Lata and Afro Samba. There are also subgroups: Afro Mangue, Tribo Negra, Akoni and Kitôto. Additional Projects AfroReggae implemented the "Rompendo Fronteiras" ("Breaking Barriers") project in October 2001 in Parada de Lucas, a slum next to Vigário Geral, where drug gangs have been fighting since 1985. This program was designed to fight against poverty and violence through educational programs including basic IT/computer courses. In the Cantagalo-Pavão-Pavãozinho slum, GCAR makes use of circus arts, such as juggling and acrobatics programs, to encourage social activity and self-confidence for teenagers. Since 1996, this community has also had a circus workshop at Ciep de Ipanema's amphitheater. Through these projects, GCAR created Trupe Levantando a Lona, which makes public presentations and helps students become professional artists. In February 2002, GCAR began offering workshops through which teenagers are offered courses in the production of documentaries. The intent is to establish an audiovisual center where the students can work together with a professional team. In the Cidade de Deus slum, AfroReggae formed a partnership with Casa de Santa Ana, which provides services to the elderly. The project there is the choir "Coral de Idosos," which works together with the percussion band Banda Makala (former Banda AfroReggae II), and involves both teenagers and the elderly. Other programs are: Programa de Comunicação ("Communication Program"), comprised of AfroReggae Notícias ARN (AfroReggae News) newspaper; the radio programs AfroRitmia and Baticum, broadcast through Viva Rio AM 1180 KHZ and through the portal Viva Favela; the AfroReggae.org site, intended to become an Internet portal where people can find information about GCAR and about the Afro-Brazilian culture; and finally, AfroNet, a service through which fact sheets are sent via e-mail, to all people involved in any of our activities, events and initiatives. Programa de Saúde (Health Program) is conducted by Trupe da Saúde, a theatrical group comprised of adolescents from Vigário Geral, which makes use of circus-like presentations to provide important healthcare tips to underprivileged communities; Barraca da Saúde, which distributes information papers about STDs/AIDS, hygiene, diseases in general, breast feeding, baby care and condoms in Morro do Cantagalo and Lapa, and in GCAR's events; and Kizumba, a fact sheet prepared by GCAR to announce health program-related subjects. AfroReggae also established an arts production company - ARPA, Afro Reggae Produções Artísticas - to give support to the professional careers of subgroups formed as a result of its social projects, especially Banda AfroReggae, and to contribute with the NGO, since almost 30% of funds raised with the events are invested in GCAR. AfroReggae has been conducting initiatives designed to invest in the potential of underprivileged teenagers, taking education, culture and art to places marked by violence and the drug trade. The movement is actively working to bridge the gap between white and black people, between the rich and the poor. Vigário was GCAR's first experience. Thanks to the encouragement and self-esteem of those living in the slums, known nationwide for its violence, this community is now recognized as an artistic and culture-generating center. GCAR hopes that its programs in Parada de Lucas, Cidade de Deus, Cantagalo, and Pavão-Pavãozinho will be equally successful. Favela Rising - www.favelarising.com Grupo Cultural AfroReggae in Portuguese - www.afroreggae.org.br
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Oh really? On what evidence is this based???