Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
Favela Documentary is proud to present our first ‘trailerzinho’!
As you can see we have started editing our 60 minute film. We’re going slowly but steady. We’ve got a new crew member too: Gustavo Gelmini. Gustavo is an experienced editor, cameraman and documentary maker from Rio de Janeiro. He is also co-founder of Midena Works Art and Technology. Gustavo joined us three weeks ago. He picked up where Joost left of a couple of months ago. Whereas Joost taught the crew the basic principles of editing, Gustavo and I are now mixing it all up: using the editing techniques to tell our story on film. It’s an interesting process to see how little by little all the hours of the videotaped lives of Diogo, Mayra, Luiz and Dudu are now being shaped into one story.
We mostly work at Patricia’s home in Botafogo. As for Vila Cruzeiro, it still is awfully tense. In April the BOPE-forces managed to take over the whole favela. Days of long bitter fighting followed and 18 people (according to the Brazilian press) got killed and dozens more wounded. The BOPE even planted a flag on a house in Vila Cruzeiro to state they owned the place now.
The police occupation lasted for about two weeks. Then, suddenly, the BOPE took off in their ‘caveirões’ (the armored black vehicles) and the tráfico took back their positions. Nowadays it is business as usual with - on average - three police invasions every week. It can get pretty nasty and scary sometimes. One minute you’re picking up your grandchild from school, the next you’re dodging bullets and hiding out at Dudu’s pensão.
We couldn’t get much done during the occupation-period as it was hard to get either in or out of the favela. But even if we were all together at the same place at the same time, with the gunfight going on and the electricity plugged of, working on the film was almost impossible to do. The Espaço Ibiss used to be a relatively safe place. Unfortunately this is no longer true. Bullet holes the size of eggs are visible in the roof, walls and doors of the building. It’s heartbreaking to see the Espaço being unsafe for the hundreds of children and youth who come to Ibiss every week as well as for the Ibiss-staff who are trying to make the best of this sometimes desperate situation.
Thankfully, our spirits were totally lifted when we got a huge spread in the biggest selling newspaper of Rio: O Dia. After weeks - what am I saying… years (!!!) of bad press (”War in favela Vila Cruzeiro”) the sunday issue of May 11th headlined: Vila Cruzeiro Dreams. You can check it out here as I leave you with a still from our documentary “Cruzeiro”.
