Favela Rising

Jeff Zimbalist and Matt Mochary's documentary is a major achievement in nonfiction filmmaking, a vibrant, important work that is as inspiring as it is tragic. The narrative centers on Anderson S?, a distinguished-looking young man who grew up in the worst of Rio di Janiero's infamously violent favelas, Vig?rio Geral. Though most residents of this extremely impoverished community do their best to cobble together a piecemeal living, the neighborhood is ruled over by murderous drug lords, whose average age of death is between 14 and 25 years old. In 1993, after one of these men murdered a few notoriously corrupt cops, the military police retaliated by brutally, and randomly, murdering 21 innocent favela residents. One of these victims was S?'s younger brother. Rather than allow the anger and despair to propel him into a place of darkness and revenge, S? decided to stop the cycle of violence, using the universal language of music as his conduit to social awareness and rebellion. Mobilizing like-minded friend... Minimize