Favela Rising, Scion Opinion Still Falling

Last week we caught a free showing of the Brazilian documentary Favela Rising, courtesy of Scion's marketing machine. With the promise of free cocktails beforehand, we trundled down to the Harvard Exit about a half hour in advance of the show. Upon making our way upstairs to the top floor, we felt a bit like we'd crashed someone's party where we quickly realized we knew no one there. The atmosphere was more "Yo check out my friend's DJ premiere" than "Indie movie screening", but we tried to settle in. Sadly, we were not wearing a mesh hat slanted like Mike Cameron, or our best "trying too hard" clothes.

Our opinion of Scion took another digger when we found out that "free cocktails" meant one drink ticket good for either an ESB or Corona that was poured into a big styrofoam cup. Our companion who does not drink beer was even less thrilled than we were. And then, as the movie was about to start, we were told to stick around to chat with the musical director from the film...waitaminute, we'd been told the confab after would be with the director director. Could we bitch that much when it was free? Not really.

Fortunately, Favela Rising delivered a far better experience. Recounting the story of central protagonist Anderson Sa--a former drug runner in one of Rio de Janeiro's worst slums ("favela" in Portugese), Vigário Geral--the film manages a good balance of documentary-style history with Sa's amazingly dramatic narrative story. At times we were painfully aware of our heartstrings being deliberately tugged, but nonetheless were compelled by Sa's vision and determination to use music and dance to lift his friends and neighbors out of the favela's seemingly neverending cycle of violence and poverty.

We were most impressed by how the band initially founded by Sa, Groupo AfroReggae, has grown into a socio-cultural establishment in Rio, starting with music and dance classes and eventually branching into social programs around health care, literacy, and counteracting domestic and drug-related violence. The film was rich with scenes of AfroReggae and its young students rehearsing and performing, keeping it from being too dour or preachy. We're a bit of a documentary wonk, but nonetheless we'd recommend this film highly to even our documentary-phobic friends.