A chicken is being plucked, skinned and butchered for dinner, the children and adults are laughing and playing and singing and dancing, and no one would ever guess what is to come. As a viewer I never imagined that after this opening scene would come murder, drugs, lawlessness, rape, more murder and violence and I would have never ever guess that it would all be grounded in truth. However, the truth is that Cidade de Deus (City of God) is based on the true story of Paulo Lins’ life in the slum outside Rio de Janerio, Brazil. It provides an important look into life in the slums where individuals left homeless in the city were forced to go. The movie provides an important and unique narrative about an area that-according to an article on the website, dialogues, proposals and stories for global citizenship- is home to “almost 50 thousand inhabitants” Although that same article claims that “the success of the film City of God portrayed the district in the media spotlight in such a way as to reinforce the stigma of a violent and dangerous community,” I would argue that this film provides a historical narrative that is worth watching more than once. Although this film does not provide a perfect view of the Cidade de Deus in the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s it is certainly a start that most people would agree is necessary for the world to see. A review by the New York Times (2002) states that the film, “is the latest and one of the most powerful in a recent spate of movies that remind us that the civilized society we take for grated is actually a Hardy 2 luxury.” This film, although not perfect, certainly provides a necessary and appropriate history of the City of God. Cidade de Deus tells the true story of a young boy named Rock... ... middle of paper ... ...eus) in Rio de Janerio, http://base.d-p-h.info/en/fiches/dph/fiche-dph-7079.html (April 2007) Silveria Stephen Holden, “FILM REVIEW; Boys soldering in an Army of Crime” New York Times, 17 January 2003 Tom Phillips, “Power battle sparks street war in Brazil’s City of God” The Observer, 10 February 2007 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/feb/11/brazil.tomphillips Out of the slums of Rio, An author finds fame” Latin America News http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/footnote.html (April 27, 2004) Out of the slums of Rio, An author finds fame” Latin America News Stephen Holden “A Magic moment for the City of God- Proper policing, better government and a stronger economy are starting to make a difference in the more violent and squalid districts of Brazil’s former capital” http://www.economist.com/node/16326428 (10 June 2010)
In Samba, Alma Guillermoprieto describes the Carnival celebrated every year in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and explores the black cultural roots from which it takes its traditions as well as its social, economic, and political context in the 1980s. From her firsthand experience and investigation into favela life and the role of samba schools, specifically of Manguiera, Guillermoprieto illustrates a complex image of race relations in Brazil. The hegemonic character of samba culture in Brazil stands as a prevalent theme in numerous facets of favela life, samba schools, and racial interactions like the increasing involvement of white Brazilians in Carnival preparation and the popularity of mulatas with white Brazilians and tourists. Rio de Janeiro’s early development as a city was largely segregated after the practice of slavery ended. The centralization of Afro-Brazilians in favelas in the hills of the city strengthened their ties to black
The book begins with the background to the city of Jerusalem and the first thousand years after Christ. In the first thousand years Rubenstein depicts all of the events that shaped the holy city’s state of being at the beginning of the
Affairs 12.3/4 (1971): 378-415. Jstor.org. Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Miami. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
Rio Bravo, staring John Wayne, Dean Martin, and Ricky Nelson to name a few, was released in 1959 and is the perfect example of a classic American Western genre film. The film blends American political and gender role ideologies with the classic genre conventions of a Western help Rio Bravo to deliver its somewhat understated message.
...he city and has suffered as a result of losing so much of its tax base to the 1967 riots. The event should be used as a cautionary tale to other cities in transition to be cognizant of demographic changes and represent all of your citizens living within your city.
Tompkins, C., 2009. The paradoxical effect of the documentary in Walter Salles’s “Central do Brasil”. Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature 33 no1 p9-27
Veloso, Caetano, and Barbara Einzig. Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 2003. Print.
Las Casas presents a nuanced view of the authority of civil government, upholding its validity while introducing a theological critique of its abuses. Las Casas’ very approach implicitly endorses the authority of the civil government within human, earthly order. Much of his intent in his Defense is to appeal to governing powers to use their authority as Las Casas’ believes God would have them. This priority is instantiated the opening summary of the Defense. Las Casas has made his arguments as a response to Emperor Charles’ call for the Valladolid Debates. In response to Las Casas’ thought, the initial summary of the Defense ascribes to Emperor Charles the pontifically decreed authority over the “Indians who live near the Ocean S...
In the favela of São Paulo, Brazil, 1958, Carolina Maria de Jesus rewrote the words of a famous poet, “In this era it is necessary to say: ‘Cry, child. Life is bitter,’” (de Jesus 27). Her sentiments reflected the cruel truth of the favelas, the location where the city’s impoverished inhabited small shacks. Because of housing developments, poor families were pushed to the outskirts of the city into shanty towns. Within the favelas, the infant mortality rate was high, there was no indoor plumbing or electricity, drug lords were governing forces, drug addiction was rampant, and people were starving to death. Child of the Dark, a diary written by Carolina Maria de Jesus from 1955 to 1960, provides a unique view from inside Brazil’s favelas, discussing the perceptions of good
Throughout the first chapter of Open Veins of Latin America, Eduardo Galeano discusses the oppressio...
Filh, Alfredo Saad. "Neoliberalism, Democracy, and Development Policy in Brazil." DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIETY June 2010: 1-28.
Burns, E. B., & Charlip, J. A. (2007). Latin America: an interpretive history (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall.
By simply review, I will say, "City of God" ("Cidade de Deus") is the story of a boy who lives in a "favela" what is the word of slum in english on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. The "favela" is like a shantytown witch called "Cidade de Deus" in the film. And from the beginning to the end, throughout this stylish movie both the boy and the favela grow.
To watch City of God is to be forced to enter, from a safe distance, the ruthless and merciless hoods of Rio de Janeiro. The captivating and poignant film guides viewers through the realistic aspects of slum life experienced by young, underprivileged youth in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, some aspects that not even most middle class Brazilians get to see. In a city where police are fraudulent, opportunities are scarce and crime is widespread, many youths believe there is no alternative to gang activity. In City of God, director Fernando Meirelles puts to the forefront of Brazilian cinema the real issues that favelas in Brazil face like poverty, extreme violence and stereotypical gender roles in a male dominated society. City of God encapsulates the hope of Rio’s impoverished blacks for social and economic ascension.
No country is devoid of violence, but it is especially prevalent in Latin America. The Organization of American States labeled violence in Latin America as an “epidemic, a plague that kills more people than AIDS or any other known epidemic” (Carroll). Brazil and Colombia are two countries that have been shaped by gang violence; both are gripped by some of the largest, most violent, and institutionalized gangs in the world. In Donna Goldstein’s ethnography of life in a Brazilian shantytown, Laughter Out of Place, the power and prevalence of gang violence is apparent. In Colombia, gangs flourish nationwide and have direct consequences on the country’s economic, political, and social structure. Despite existing in entirely different countries, and though they are unlike in some regards, gangs in Brazil and Colombia, as a whole, share similarities in their power, function, and effect on the lives of the poor.