Cinemão: Free Films in Rio Favelas: Daily

By Chesney Hearst, Senior Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Bringing free showings of Brazilian films to pacified communities, the Cinemão project will present its “Favela na Tela – Mostra Criativos Populares” (“Favela on Screen – Showing Popular Creations”) sessions in two locations in the pacified community of Andaraí on Sunday, September 21st and Monday, September 22nd.

Since the beginning of 2013, the Cinemão project has taken both full-length and short films, as well as photography exhibitions, into the city’s pacified favelas for free showings in an effort to help promote and spread Brazilian cinema and culture among low-income populations fostering peaceful gatherings inside the communities.

To present the films the Cinemão project uses the Veículo de Ocupação Tática da Cultura (Tactical Occupation Vehicle of Culture), a car equipped with an image projector, an inflatable screen, sound system, chairs and a popcorn maker. The four-wheeled projector travels around the city, setting up at each chosen Cinemão project location.

Each session includes film that highlight life in favelas and issues that arise in those areas as the central themes. Films made and directed by residents of the communities and various neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro receive precedence in the showings.

The current sessions feature the premiere of “Remoção” (“Removal”). Directed by Luiz Antônio Pilar and Anderson Quack, the feature film is a documentary about the removal process of the favelas that used to be located in Parque Proletário da Gávea, in Gávea, Praia do Pinto, in Leblon, among others, during the 1960s and 1970s. Those removals led to the first experiments in government housing, including the homes that were built as part of the Cidade de Deus community.

Several short films will also be available to the residents of Andaraí, including “Onde a Coruja Dorme” (“Where the Owl Sleeps”), a samba-style musical directed by Marcia Derraik and Simplício Neto.

What: Cinemão presents “Favela na Tela – Mostra Criativos Populares” (“Favela on Screen – Showing Popular Creations”)
Where: Andaraí -Rua Leopoldo, 497- Praça da Mina. Nova Divinéia, Andaraí- Rua Engenheiro Morsing, 220. (In front of the UPP cabin)
When: Sunday, September 21st (Andaraí), Monday, September 22nd (Nova Divinéia), both showings begin at 6:30 PM
Entrance: FREE

Read more (in Portuguese).

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