Shooting stars

By Daniel Nelson Jeff Zimbalist wanted to make a film “about communities that succeed, that overcome great diversity.” He’s done it. Favela Rising is a portrait of Anderson Sa and of the AfroReggaae movement which set out to entice youngsters away from the drug lords who rule the squatter settlements in Ro de Janeiro. The youngsters are lured by quick cash and the glamour of guns. Caught in the crossfire between rival gangs and corrupt police, they rarely live long enough to enjoy the fruit of their illicit and dangerous labour. Anderson Sa was a dealer himself, but having witnessed murder and mayhem he joins and helps builds a hip-hop and Afro-Brazilian cultural group to the point where even the traffickers show him respect: “For fhe first time, (the favela of) Vigario Geral is a place of hope.” In an on-camera interview he says his greatest fear is immobility, and it hits the viewer like a sledgehammer when in a split second of night-time surfing Anderson Sa is caught by a wave, hurled against a rock and turned into a quadriplegic. His near motionlessness contrasts shockingly with the visceral energy of the sights and sounds of the film’s earlier scenes. Then another Brazilian hero – well-educated, well-paid, highly skilled – offers him the long odds chance of a no-fee operation. Recovery seems impossible, but after a struggle in which “each day is the Olympics”, Anderson Sa is back on stage, dancing and singing. His community’s struggle goes on. Directors Zimbalist and Matt Mochary have captured the favela feeling, the rawness of life in a virtually besieged shantytown. By showing some of the kids how to film and sometimes leaving cameras with them, the film-makers obtained grittily authentic footage of life in Vigario Geral. It reads like a cliché when Zimbalist says the film “celebrates the strength of the human spirit to assert itself in the face of human rights violations, social injustice, and unexpected adversity.” For once, the hype is true. * Favela Rising opens at the ICA and Ritzy in London on 10 March and will then be shown in major cities across the UK. It will be shown on Tuesday 21 Februaryat the Human Rights Action Centre, 17-25 New Inn Yard, EC2, and band members will take questions after the screening. Info: Amnesty * AfroReggae are touring UK in March. Details and tickets *

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