Monday, February 18th, 2008
Favela Documentary was seperated for almost six weeks. The first week of January, half the crew - Mayra and Diogo - traveled to Holland to go on tour with Não Sou Maluco’s spectacle Favela Força. I was already there, waiting for the group to arrive and go on tour with them. The farewell at the airport was filmed by Dudu and Luiz who, unfortunately, had to stay behind in Vila Cruzeiro. But in a way they also joined us: in the videos they helped make for Favela Força.
For Diogo, Mayra and the other actors from Não Sou Maluco, the journey to Holland and Belgium was an enormous experience. In every way: flying, traveling outside of Rio, being without their families, Europe, the cold, touring, snow, foreign languages, strange food, no sun and….peace. “Holland is so quiet”, Mayra says, “I’m used to always having noise around me. But here I don’t hear anything!” And what about the other kind of peace? No gunfight and the security that you can always return home safely.
The best part of the tour were our nights at the theaters. The message in Favela Força is strong in itself: despite preconceptions and violence, favela life is not only a life of misery and many people manage to turn it all into something positive. The same thing we want to express in Favela Documentary. We were very glad that the audience really understood this and that many people were even moved by it as well. All in all, the tour was a big success!
Here are some pictures. Many thanks to Velu and Mundial Productions!
But now it’s back to business! It hasn’t been easy for Luiz and Dudu to continue working without the rest of us. And, even worse, there have been a lot of police raids in Vila Cruzeiro. The crew will be filming until the end of February. That is a little bit longer than I planned, but necessary. After that we’ll start editing which will take some time as well. Please check back soon to see how we’re doing!