Mountainfilm 2006 Official Selection

Favela Rising

Matt Mochary & Jeff Zimbalist

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 Sa is a former drug trafficker turned 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 war against 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 operation is at the height of its success, a tragic accident threatens to silence the movement forever.

(USA, 2005, 80 min)

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