The winner of the Audience Award at the 4th annual 3Continental Film Festival at Cinema Nouveau screened by Jameson nationwide is Favela Rising, directed by Matt Mochary and Jeff Zimbalist.
This documentary film festival is one of South Africa’s leading international film festivals focusing on issues of human rights and social justice, showcasing films from and about the global South a€” Latin America, Africa and Asia.
Favela Rising documents a man and a movement, a city divide and a favela united. Haunted by an infamous police massacre in his community in one of Rio de Janeiro’s most violent slums and sick of the perpetual violence that plagues his community, former drug dealer Anderson Sá turned social revolutionary. Through music and Afro-Brazilian dance, Sá rallied the community of Vigário Geral to counteract the violent oppression enforced by drug armies and sustained by corrupt police; forging a movement that brings hope to the ghettos and its forgotten youth. The film shows how the music and culture of Brazil’s underclass can become a catalyst for grassroots social change.
