My blessings...

May 25, 2013

As I review the footage that I shot in Rio on my last trip, I am struck by two things.  How much material I have and the great blessing I have received in meeting the two extraordinary people who have continued this journey with me up until this point, Patricia and Zezinho.

When I first met Patricia she shared her dream of visiting Europe and she is currently in London.  The confidence that she exhibits has inspired all along this process.  My challenge with Patricia is not making her feel on the spot when I get her on camera.  Her candidness when she's speaking to me as we travel through Rio is something I am searching for a way to share.  She has in many ways allowed me to "spy" or visit Rio from the inside because when we spend time together it is usually going to an event, or a party, and along the way I meet her friends and hear stories about her life.  This is not easily captured on film.  I am planning to deal with this in two ways.  I am hoping to show her some of my earlier interviews where she mentions her desire to visit Europe as a way to encourage her to recall how she felt when she was sharing the dream, and what it was  like to experience the reality.  Next I am hoping to get an opportunity to speak with other people about Patricia.  Friends that I have met through her, who obviously admire and appreciate her as a person.  I am a Cancer, born in July, and it is my nature to talk about everyone else's experiences, but be reluctant to share my own, so I understand Patricia.  We are kindred spirits.  While I try to find ways to help Patricia feel comfortable on camera I will happily continue to benefit from her willingness to share experiences like the party we went to in the favela Santa Marta, that enrich my life.

Zezinho, presents different challenges, in that he is extremely comfortable on camera, but he usually talks about two subjects Rocinha, and his DJ school (see http://rocinhamediaschool.org/).  His tours are amazing.  As flight attendant, I have experienced  tours in Tokyo, Rome, Cairo, Tel Aviv...the list goes on and on and nowhere has the information been given with so much detail, and history and humor, as the tours given by Zezinho because he loves the place that he lives and works in so much.

Unlike with Patricia who is very open one on one, Zezinho rarely talks about his personal life or personal goals unless they relate to Rocinha or the DJ School.  I believe part of the reason is that his main mode of operation is as a caregiver.  He thinks of others first, and places himself second.  I have experienced this firsthand, many times, latest being his offer to keep some of my clothes at his apartment so that I could travel with less when I return.  Recent issues with Zezinho's knees, have inspired me to continue helping him in any way that I can, and to remind him to take care of himself, and put himself first every once in a while.  He has to stay strong to continue the work that he has begun to give the kids in the Rocinha dreams of their own, by giving tours of the place that he loves, Rocinha.

My challenge as a filmmaker is to pick the images and vignettes that will most enlighten my viewers to the day to day challenges of my subjects, and at the same time present them as real people.  I got lucky one time, and happened to be at Zezinho's house when he was giving his newest kitty a flea bath, I was happy to get that footage because it was a part of everyday life.  Later in that visit to Rio I was dying to turn on the camera, I missed an opportunity to interview Patricia about what happened when she planned to bring her daughter to meet me for the first time on a visit to Santa Marta.  Her daughter wanted her to wear shorts and a tee-shirt like any other 8 year old girl, while her mother wanted her to look nice.  I know that there are many mothers, I included, who can relate to that experience with their own child.  One thing I hope to make clear with this film is that our similarities far outweigh or differences.

I would like to invite anyone that has had either a personal tour with Patricia, or a group tour with Zezinho to add your comments to this blog about what kind of people you found them to be.  Again, I am constantly amazed at my good fortune to meet them both.

A return and a recommitment

May 11, 2013

I have been back to Brazil...  I have rediscovered some of the things that I always loved and found new things to love about its people, and their tenacity, their warmth and their strength.  

The above photo is of a great friend Patricia, one of my Brazilian heros.  This picture is taken in what is known as the Santa Marta favela, but I prefer to say Santa Marta "comunidade" (community).  I first found out about this place over the internet.  During a period when I was not allowing myself the freedom t go as often as possible to Brazil. Patricia participated in a Rio Tour internship.  She got an opportunity to work as as tour guide in this favela translating for English visitors.  She met and was befriended by Salete, another guia de Turismo, whose food project Patricia took me to visit on this trip.  Salete, owns a small bar on the street leading to Santa Marta and on this particular day she was serving feijoada (a traditional black bean stew) to benefit the travel for elders in the comunidade, whose travel benefits had been reduced.  Many people from the community came out to support the food sale and I was lucky enough to find out  about a monthly party at the top of the Santa Marta favela also meant to benefit the community.  

Okay, a food sale, a party at the top of a favela.  No big deal you say.  This favela is in a new stage of its existence.  It is post pacification.  Many of the favelas have been occupied by the police.  There are pros and cons for every situation, but for me as an outsider looking in, I learned two things.  First from Patricia I learned that at one time Salete wouldn't feel safe having her small bar open past 8pm, and next I learned that at one time visitors alone would not feel comfortable as we were made to feel walking up to the monthly party, later that same week.  As we, myself, my new French friend from the hostel Vidigalberge, and my friend Patricia walked up to the top of Santa Marta, we were constantly surrounded by little girls and boys asking if we needed directions to the Michael Jackson party.  In my ignorance, I had not yet researched the history of the favela, but at the top I was amazed to see a beautiful mural of Michael Jackson, on the rooftop courtyard where the party was held.  I later learned Michael Jackson filmed his video "They don't care about us". The community also boast a statue of Michael Jackson.  I will leave each reader the pleasure of researching what Michael Jackson's visit meant to the community.

At the party on Saturday the people were invited to bring bags of rice, it was a charity of event for the community and as a documentarian, I was blessed to get footage of an amazing Samba band that included both a male and female singer, with Mr. Jackson's image in the background, and a mountain of rice on the table in the forefront.  

This introduction to Santa Marta, is only one of the new experiences that I experienced enjoyed and documented on my last trip to Rio.  Another new experience was the result of a tragedy.  On March 30th, two tourist a man and a woman entered were kidnapped, beaten and raped by local van operators.  It was later revealed that the assailants had rented a similar van to the ones organized originally to serve the poor communities and were not in fact official van operators.  The larger tragedy was that a brazilian female student was raped by the same men weeks before and after she reported the crime, absolutely nothing was done to find her attackers.  After the tourist's attack the men were apprehended in less than two days.

Through my visit to document Zezinho's tour of another favela Rocinha I learned that almost a thousand people that worked for or on the local vans were out of a job.  After the tourist attack, the Brazilian government dramatically cut the number of vans and the routes they could pick up from, as a result of responding to the tourist attack and to nullify bad press that my affect the Rio's image for the World Cup in 2014.

I was personally affected because after waiting an extremely long time (I'm virtually a New Yorker, so anything over five minutes is a long time) for an van from Vidigal (the hostel where I was staying) to Rocinha, I was flagged down by a van going the opposite way.  

I later involuntarily enjoyed a trip from Leblon, through Gavea, and then from the top of Rocinha down to the botton of Rocinha.  I now have a greater familiarity with a favela that I've grown to love Rocinha.  

As I reflect on this trip, in the days to come, more and more will be revealed about how the people and the experiences that I have in Rio enrich my life.  As my friend Patricia says, "Don't think too much..." and by that she means don't have any regrets do the things that you love to do.  

In some ways when I first came to Rio and started my documentary I was spying on another way of life.  Now I am learning about a new way to live life to the fullest.  And whether it is seeing Ipanema in the distance as the sun rises...

Or whether it is appreciating the tree tops with the ocean in the distance, it is all the same learning to really value each moment.