Rocinha and Vidigal, two communities, two portraits...

I spent most of my last visit to Rio in two communities, not just visiting sites but exploring and absorbing feelings and ambience.

The first place I spent time immediately after dropping off my bags was Rocinha.  The home of my friend Zezinho, who first taught me what favelas really were about.  I noticed new things this time around.  I saw the energy of change, the constant commerce, and the irony of Rocinha's placement right next to San Corado one of the richest neighborhoods in Rio.

Now that I have walked around the neighborhood, and scene the children playing, and met some community leaders, and friends of Zezinho, I believe I have a greater understanding of the spirit that it takes to survive and thrive in Rocinha.  

I have always gotten the impression that Brazilians as whole or more accurately, the cariochas, the lower to middle class Brazilians that I have personally met don't trust or believe in the government and its practices a sentiment that President Dilma Rousseff will have a hard changing.  This is why Zezinho has started his DJ school in his own living room.  Despite the humble beginning his commitment is rock steady, as is the professionalism, that I admired when I first saw his website.  For the DJ school, Zezinho as its producer has hired teacher, printed out a curriculum for each student, and made t-shirts and banners to assure any naysayers that he is in it for the long haul.  

Filming the DJ class in progress in Portuguese, it was really the curriculum that I was observing, I was checking out the fact that the students came dressed for class, the way North Americans used to dress to travel on airplanes, a sense that they had prepared for an important event in their lives.  I noticed that everyone was on time, that students called when they wouldn't be able to make it, and that everyone was supportive of each other.  Obviously some students were gifted and some were not, but that sense of the team pulling for each member was something I hadn't experienced in quite some time.  

Later I returned to document another class and go to dinner and a baille funk (funk dance party) in the favela.   The energy had not subsided in any fashion, and reminded me of my city New York.

I was able to become comfortable in yet another favela in Rio, Vidigal, thanks to my host at Vidigalbergue Rio Hostel.  One of the owners first gave  me a tour similar to my tour with Zezinho, but then I went back on a personal tour with this sister and climbed to "Morro Dois Irmãos" (English: Two Brothers Hill) which is actually a 40 minute vertical climb.  

From this vantage point, Rocinha is at your feet, and you see how large it is in a way that I couldn't when Zezinho mentioned that there were over 300,000 people living there.  

In Vidigal there is a overall feeling of tranquility.  Its not small town feel, but more a peaceful neighborhood, where it would be easy to forget that you were in a favela.  There were not as many in your face symbols of underground trafficking.  Not to be naive, but just like in Rocinha I found myself making sure that I was not in the vicinity of anyone making 'sales' but at the same time, it obviously wasn't an issue as much as it was in Rocinha.  I am not one to sugarcoat anything.  Even my own city, if I find myself walking by an inner city park that is not well populated with children and parents, I wonder what kinds of enterprise I might be disturbing by presence.  Rio is no different than any metropolitan city, that has poor, middle, and upper economic classes. 

What makes favelas unique in my eyes is the way that the older people are respected, and the children are embraced without being smothered.  The graffiti is accepted, and the art is uncensored.  

Rio is so real....

On some level, I knew that everything you do changes you.  But with each trip to Brazil, I realize that I am being changed from the inside out.

As I looked at the kids learning how to become a DJ in the Spin Rohinha DJ School produced by my friend and documentary subject DJ Zezinho, I saw young adults present and in the now, focused 100% plus on learning the fundamentals of DJ'ing.  From my time spent in their neighborhood, eating, walking and talking with Zezinho, I realize that these people have very real challenges to just making it to the class each day.

I had the pleasure of touring both Rocinha, and Vidigal with two cariocas, and then reaching a comfort level that allowed me to visit first Rocinha and attend a baille funk, (funk party) and then Vidigal to shop for a new watch and clothing.  I have personally ridden on a moto taxi (motorcycle taxis, that are sometimes ridden by multiple people), to go up the hills of a favela, and walked down in the rain trying to avoid getting run over by a van zooming down what I now know are former race courses.

I have visited favelados who were in the process of building their new kitchens, and finding ways to improve their homes.  Below is the entrance to an artist's studio and home.  The artist was just as enthusiastic about showing the new kitchen that he's building as he was about showing his new work.

I remembered myself at the age of the DJ school students (14-30), when I was singing backup for different groups, believing that anything was possible.  Now I am actually seeing myself as I was, and being brought back to believing in my ability to make dreams come true.  As I return to the states to find that in many cases I have to wait until the new grant-writing cycle for many documentary film grants, I am slightly disheartened to be honest, but at the same time, I feel challenged to find a new way to create a portrait of the spirit of the people in Brazil that have inspired me to create my documentary WHY BRAZIL?  This is an opportunity to rework my current work sample/rough cut of the beginning of the film, because I believe more than ever that these people are special, and to get accepted for a grant I will need to create an accurate portrait, while maintaining the privacy and trust of my subjects.

I am reminded of the news report I sat and watched while having dinner in Vidigal, understanding every fifth word, about the progress being made to finish the soccer stadiums in time for the World Cup in 2014.  President Dilma Rousseff is still adamant that it is possible to meet the goal of having the majority finished by early 2013, despite naysayers.  One persons belief can make the impossible, possible.  President Rousseff is forced to deal with a population which has more faith in the belief that corruption is the only constant in Brazilian government.  She has answered this by the changeover of at last count 9 members of her cabinet that left because of corruption, or fear of investigation into corruption.

My challenge is Why Brazil...why would an audience be interested in following the challenges and hardships experienced by these characters.  Who is that audience?  I have to face naysayers who don't believe they are special. How will I do that, personalizing the story and bringing in how this process is changing me... or including the side comments ('Gringo) that Zezinho faces from jealous people, or the stress of being a student, with a child that Patricia faces, or the challenge of trusting people with his livelihood in Rio that Rotimi faces while going to other cities with bands that he is producing.

The people are either interesting or they're not.  That's real.  I believe they are interesting.  Can I show what I find interesting and universal about these people and define the audience that would also find them interesting?

The Interim...

It has been quite a long time since, I posted here, but of course I feel my absence has been justified.  I have sent out seven applications for grants for my documentary, working title WHY BRAZIL.  To do this I first bought a new computer right after returning from Carnival 2011, and was busy learning Final Cut so that I could edit the work sample of the documentary, which is actually a rough cut of an opening sequence for the film.

In the meantime, I have been getting to know my subjects, Zezinho, Patricia, and Rotimi, through emails, and facebook, and sharing my experiences with them through the social media.

What I have come to realize is that for the documentary to be real I will have to open up myself, and share even more of my own background with my subjects who are now my friends as well.  I am here in Rio now, and beginning to do that.  This time around having only been here two days I have spent a day hanging out with Zezinho, essentially just getting to know him, and sharing some of my history, and the next night I got an opportunity to go to my first baille funk with Patricia and her sister Priscilla who I met in person for the first time, yesterday.  Its funny how you can feel comfortable with someone just from seeing pictures of a person, and in Priscilla's case knowing her sister Patricia.  We partied like old friends.  I'm sure many people can relate, how disarming it is to first meet or hear of someone through the internet.

This is how I met my boyfriend of almost two years, and I am a solid convert, and believer that sometimes people are braver and more open on the internet, than they would normally be in person upon meeting someone for the first time.

Along with editing, and grant writing, I have been following the progress, and challenges of Zezinho, Patricia, and Rotimi, and the progress and challenges of its new leader Dilma Rousseff.  I believe that the Brazilian people were not quite prepared to have such a strong female leader.  I have come to know that she is cleaning house in the Brazilian government, and I hope this will have a positive effect on the ability of "all" Brazilians to benefit from the money and opportunities that will come to Brazil with the advent of the World Cup and the Olympics.

A large part of me created this documentary is me experiencing first hand how Brazilians feel about about their reality.  One example was the experience I had catching a taxi to Vidigal, a favela in Rio where I am staying.  The hostel sent a taxi to meet me, but it broke down right outside the airport, and I had to get a regular cab.  Some of the cab drivers, made a face when I mentioned my destination like "why would you want to go there?"  I might have been assuming, but I got the impression that this was not a desirable location, and they couldn't understand why I would want to go there.  Its one thing to be told by favelados that they are discriminated against, and its another to experience that discrimination indirectly myself.

Community...

I have recently been thinking about what this word means, and I've come to realize that in this day and age there is no limit to the size of your community, it just depends on how you define this word.  When I think of my own community, I think of the people that I pass when taking my weekly walks in the community who have the nerve to tell me "You're running a little late today..." as I pass.  The people in the beauty supply store who ask me if I've been out of the country.  I consider my community to be my friends and family that I keep in touch with and care about, and share things with, even when we are not even on the same continent.  I think of my work community, of fellow flight attendants who share things like missed periods, and grandchildren about to be born, and my family in Texas, who shares news about Obama, and my family in New York, that shares news about recipes, and diets, and funny email jokes.  Community is important to us all, and as I recently read about the BOPE, the first military presence entering favelas and then the UPP, the "new police" who are supposed to be the new authorities, taking over for the traffickers, being run out of some favelas, my first instinct because I have the luxury of being distanced literally from these situations, was I'll not focus on the negative, I won't write, "is everybody ok!"  Thinking that the people that know I care will know that they are in my thoughts and prayers.  More importantly, I remind myself, that some of my friends in Brazil, have better things to do with their time, than chatting on Facebook, or blogging about their daily life.  I've actually starting feeling fortunate whenever I hear from anyone that I care about, because even though its easier, it sometimes is not "Easy" to reach out.

In fact, as one friend wrote..."they woke me up", you can't not speak about injustice you have verbalize how you feel, and share those feelings.  Having the World Cup in Brazil for the first time, since 1978, is a positive thing.  However, I also know that this much attention on one place has the potential to have governments look for quick solutions to long standing problems.  I used to work for ABC Television Network, and I know that at best the outside world will hear just the tip of the iceberg with regard to what is really going on to create this image of a country cleaning up for the World Cup.  I do know that I have seen pictures of people attempting to go about their daily lives even as police are shaking down counter-fitters, and traffickers, right across the street.  When I am in Chinatown in New York City, and see one of the vendors being harassed by police across the street, and I realize that I had bought something from the same vendor the month before.  This is my sense of community, there but for the grace of God could be me, witnessing violence to my community up close and personal, or even being drawn into the violence.  I think of my son, who we just took out to dinner to celebrate him getting his Masters degree, and I hope the young children passing the police raids on the favela street corner, continue on to school, and are not disheartened.

The funny part is my documentary has afforded me an opportunity to speak to people in various communities in Rio de Janeiro, where the most recent upheavals have occurred.  There are actually people that believe the hype, the UPP, the passification process is going smoothly, and is welcome by the favela communities.  At least that is what they say into the microphone, but maybe turning a blind eye is part of wanting the added tourism, and financial investment to continue.  Maybe some people choose to look beyond today, to a future that includes more hospitals being built, more bank branches being built, and more work opportunities opening up, as the World Cup and the Olympics get closer.

While busy acquiring a new computer, learning a new editing program, and sending out grants to fund my documentary WHY BRAZIL, it has also been important to keep in touch with my community, and to exchange information about opportunities for free training that are opening up in Rio, and even attempting to get a group of fellow flight attendants to go with me on my next trip to Brazil.  Ultimately, my interest in Brazil, has led me to meet some people that don't have the luxury of sticking their head in the sand, and are therefore forced to be as honest as possible about their dreams, the priorities, and this honesty and focus on the now is spilling over into everything I do.

How much deeper...

As Rotimi, one of my subjects for the documentary mentioned, its hard to tell what is being done for the World Cup and what is being done normally.  Rio is moving at a fast pace. Taking complete advantage of its renown as a country of football (soccer) fanatics who will host the 2014 World Cup, its notoriety as a country positioned to become the sixth largest economy based on its being the world's first sustainable biofuels economy and the biofuel industry leader and its union with other new leaders BRICS (the economic union of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), Brazil is starting to ask for an end to the dominance of leaders from U.S. and Europe in the International Money Fund and the World Bank. 

"We will insist on the fact that governance at the IMF and the World Bank cannot be a systematic rotation between the U.S. and Europe, with the other countries excluded," Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff told reporters in Beijing April 12. "There is no reason for that."

The question for the small group of Brazilians which I chose to focus on in the documentary is how much of the economic power will filter down to the common man.  Most of the people that I asked about how they were going about making their dreams come true never mentioned going through the system to get funding or inquiring about opportunities, and I found that to be odd.  I know from my own experience that after you get over the initial fear of asking for help, and questioning whether your own ideas and interest have merit, applying for funding is just another way to keep your dreams moving.  It need not be an either or, but  is a  valid "in addition to" in combination with the do-it-yourself method. 

I am put in mind of the artist who I'd met in Salvador Bahia that also owned his own restaurant Artist X (he is a private person), who first mentioned that any and every infrastructure request that he'd ever made involved bribery to officials.  His statement stuck with me and I immediately gave up on my initial enthusiasm for Brazil.  I thought 'this apple has a worm in it, and I'm not moving here'.  However, since then, (late 1999) I have grown to know that the U.S. has its own brand of corruption that is just as insidious even for being more hidden, and infrequently talked about. 

In Brazil there is no welfare system, there is no bail out, but is what you see what you get?  As I look past the paradise that is the initial impression that I had of Brazil, I wonder what happened to the gang of little boys I used see by the park near the beginning of Ipanema, and who is fighting for the little girl that I saw watching the buses go by as she used the street as her facility in Lapa.  How much deeper will I need to go to find out WHY BRAZIL?

I later found out that Artist X,  that I met in 1999 still lives in Salvador, uses the international arts fund to ship his artwork to festivals and exhibits for free, and has also become a real estate agent. What is the unique element about this country that keeps people coming back, investing, and prospering despite its corruption, poverty and racial problems. 

Rio Carnaval 2011 and More

Rio 2011, and now I can say I've seen it all...

There is no way to truly prepare for Carnaval in Rio, to look at pictures, or video does not prepare you for the reality of being plugged into the light socket that is this unique celebration.  Carnaval goes from morning till night and one street party, "blocko" blends into another, until you feel like Alice in Wonderland.  Sometimes you want to step away for a minute, but then you find yourself in the midst of a group of people who are so warm, so willing to share their enjoyment, that you can't help but participate.  I am collecting a few select interviews, for my documentary, but at the same time uncovering a mystery.  Each person has a picture of what's going on in Rio and the rest of Brazil, some of it positive, some of it negative, all depending on the perspective.  One day I did an interview with a Carioca, native Brazilian, who spoke about the improvement in the bus routes.  Gone are the days of old when you could stick out your thumb and get any city bus to stop for you.  In preparation for the World Cup and the Olympics, Rio is now setting up Zone 1, 2, 3, etc. where only certain buses stop, and this has been going on for some time but with some resistance.  At 3 a.m. when I was trying to find the right bus to take me to Lapa after having attended 6 blockos that day, I was not amused that I had to keep walking until I found the right zone. 

Some of the favelas in Rio have been "cleaned up".  Drug lords (the guys) have been kicked out by police, who have established a permanent police presence in "some" favelas.  Meanwhile other favelas have the "guys" paying for mini-vans to transport people to and from the favelas, and the "guys" are improving the favelas in other ways.  Some Brazilians feel that kicking out drug lords, only forces them to move to other cities in Brazil, much like XXX shops moved from Time Square in New York to surrounding neighborhoods.  This is the fast paced city that is Rio de Janeiro, ever the same and ever changing.

I am greatful to Carnaval 2011 for rejuvenating my spirit, and reminding me that we all create our own reality each day.

I'm not shocked, I am surprised...

I had just finished the first part of my interview with a character in my documentary WHY BRAZIL. I left my camera with my subject at the table in a beachside bar, and went downstairs to the ladies room. After paying my 2 reals to the restroom attendant I went to a stall, saying 'escupa' as I brushed by the attendants girlfriend who was leaning over an overstuffed backpack and in the middle of a discussion. I thought nothing of it. It was around 11pm and in relaxed Rio seeing an attendant talking to a friend while working was no big deal. I went back to the table. my subject, a well brought up Nigerian man asked if I wanted another cerveza and I said sure. He continued telling me about the difference between loose woman and the nice girls that went to church that he had met in Rio.

Beer doesn't stay in my system long so I went back to the restroom. I noticed after I'd paid that the same backpack was on the floor of the first stall. I finished and went to wash my hands and realized the same girl had changed from Jean shorts to a red sequined dress that barely covered anything. She had plugged the curling iron into a socket next to the electric hand dryer and it caused the hand dryer not to work. She politely took her plug out but I shook my hands and my head and left the bathroom.

I am surprised that I didn't see a red letter on her forehead, when I first saw her in the bathroom. SHE SEEMED LIKE A REGULAR GIRL! Not like a hooker, loose woman, street or should I say beach walker, at all. I was to find myself surprised often in Brazil but that was one of the last times I went anywhere without my camera.

A part of me thinks stealing a picture of the girl curling her hair would be judgmental and the filmmaker in me deeply regrets not having the image to explain in a quicker way, this dark side of Brazil.