Favela Rising | DVD Review

Rio de Janeiro, the home of Carnivál, sun drenched beaches, and one of the most famous statues in the world is also the home of one of the most violent neighborhoods in the world. Jeff Zimbalist and Matt Mochary delve deeply into the war zone that is Vigario Geral in Favela Rising a powerful and moving documentary which displays both the lowest levels of humanity and the ability to rise from the depth to empowerment.

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.

Mochary and Zimbalist utilize gritty and deliberately off focus cinematography as well as archival footage from some of the most violent events in the history of the favela in sparing none the grisly truth of life in the streets, the massacre of the innocent and the police corruption the film portrays. The film’s bleached out look, along with the decidedly videoesque film style lead to the credibility of the project. Zimbalist, a former instructor at the New York Film Academy and his student Mochary, were told on more than one occasion during filming that their lives were in danger. The film’s use of performance footage from the Banda AfroReggae succeeds in breaking the downward spiral that the film would otherwise evoke. The music is hypnotic and energetic, the lyrics socially conscious. The directors allowed children of the neighborhood to participate in the project by providing them with cameras during the concerts to capture the essence of the group. Anderson’s interview is dramatically portrayed despite the subtitles and sometimes overzealous use of echo effect.

The films definitive political agenda draws a wary eye to the documentary’s editing choices, and in fact the directors discuss the films evolution in the bonus section. Initially the project was to cover 4 people from each “district” of Rio, the affluent and the poor, but Anderson was severely injured and the directors chose to completely redo the film despite 3 months of work. Following a fractured neck, Anderson receives a “miracle healing” which allows him to return from a paralyzed state. The effect of this change on Anderson inspired the filmmakers not only to change the course of the film, but also inspired the title. Anderson’s rise to his feet following a horrific injury is mirrored in the change the favela itself found following the AfroReggae movement. The finished project is decidedly moving, telling the tale of a third world region that is striving to regain its identity and dignity; however, the images do not always coincide with the tale being told. During the film there are scenes from Military Police training facilities in which the police are portrayed as preparing for “guerilla” warfare with the citizens of the favela. It is not until the bonus features that it is learned the police have joined forces with AfroReggae and begun working with the group. The cooperation is possibly the key that allowed the filming inside the training camp, though the initial film misleads that point.

The film is yet another in the growing IFC/Genius Films collaboration. It is the first project for Mochary and Zimbalist. The film was premiered at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival where it won Best New Documentary Filmmaker along with 33 other film festival awards. The project has given rise to a social movement elsewhere as well. Investors in the film pledged their profits to an organization designed to bring the concept to inner city organizations in the United States and Haiti.

The DVD includes 22 minutes of behind the scenes “Making of…” footage along with a music video from the AfroReggae group. The bonus feature provides insight and footage of both incarnations of the film along with some embedded deleted scenes from the finished project. There is also footage of the “Favela Rising World Tour” and emotion-packed footage of the impact on viewers from Harlem to Los Angeles.

“Favela Rising has risen not just to the top of the documentary genre, but has given rise to a newly rediscovered sense of social consciousness both here and abroad. The overall social commentary of the film resonates beyond the borders of culture and language to an underlying core that reaches everyone”.

Movie rating – 3

Disc Rating – 3