If you have not seen this film it is one of my favorites. It is the story of a young man who finds out he is a talented photographer by photographing street thugz in the midst of gang warfare in the slums built outside of Rio de Janero. It spans over a decade of time in which local street hoods battle in the streets for neighborhood control. A very well directed film with many first time actors shot in Brazil.
Rented this and saw it last night. Too much to go over. I can't get a handle of what I think. I definitely liked it. Thought it was interesting how the media never broke into that area to cover the news because they couldn't get anyone on the inside. It took a local to break the story. It highlights how much doesn't probably get reported because the media is not infiltrating it.
The editing of this movie was really sharp. The knive/chicken/young street gang/photographer stand-off seems arbitrary and when it flashes back to it at the end, it's still is. Why this moment? Is it when the main characters steps out of the drama and into the larger picture of photojournalistic opportunity--or--where he sees this as a story versus a personal headache (his head not getting served on a platter by a bunch of 8 and 13 year olds with guns).
City of God reminds me a lot of Sieranna and Munich. What do the cops get out of letting certain criminals run free while others are thrown in jail? Money, obviously. Their motives center around keeping the gang warfare going.
Well South America is the CIA's play ground. So they do a pretty good job of keeping American press out of the issue's in these countries. I mean they have to much money invested in drugs and arms to worry about somthing as meanial as human rights (note the sarcasm). But thats all it take is a couple of photo's to surface and boom the hole world is snooping around. As for Rio de Janero they want to look good for American tourists so they make the city look good and kick all the poor poele out. Kind of like the Olympics in Atlanta.
