interchange Rocinha/ Brazil - Sendai/ Japan (visual da Rocinha)

The I2I cinema class always had great success among the kids. And when we got the opportunity of an exchange with a japanese NGO, the cinema class found itself a new project to work on. A project to be shared and seen on the other side of the world... The kids were obviously really excited and the project took off quite easily: 
The five english classes would pick up what they would like to show about Rocinha and present it in english:  The sunday market, Sao Conrado beach, Visual, the samba school Academicos da Rocinha and Tio Lino's art studio were chosen. 
The photo class would walk around Rocinha and take pictures of said selected subjects.
The cinema class would make a film out of the pictures and insert the english comments. 


All the classes got to work on the same project at the same time, which makes it such a special work for everyone. You can watch the Visual (aka the top of the hill) video at the top of that post, with comments from my english class, and check out the other videos here.


A few months later, american volunteer Drew brought even more cinema to Rocinha and the institut. The cinema class had already been going on for a while but Drew brought it to a whole new dimension, bringing digitals cameras and network exposure to Rocinha (he presented his work with the kids on CNN). 
Watch Aline and Ana Luiza presenting you their favorite place in Rocinha: the beauty salon...

Cinema seems to be an amazing vector of opportunity for I2I as former cinema teacher Ana Paula is now going to take 3 of our students to Italy in july in order for them to assist to a film festival she's currently working for. 

i2i Break - Guerreir@s do Ritmo

Check out the amazing work of our break dance teacher, Marina, aka Nurse Boogie, with the kids from I2I. The group is called Guerreiros do Ritmo and they had the amazing opportunity to show their moves in a few Hip Hop context all over Rio and check out professionals battles. It's a whole new culture, a whole new universe they got to discover through a dance class.

The video was recorded in Rocinha, on a very bright orange colored football field.

Drew, american volunteer in charge of a cinema project, did the filming and editing.

Music by K-Os - B-boy Stance

28 Millimetres - Mulheres Da Providencia

Last year was the Ano da França no Brasil and it was a great excuse to discover new, yet unknown in Brazil, artists.

French artist JR's exhibition 28 millimetros at the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil was the one that fascinated me the most. Because it was beautiful. Because it was looking at the favela straight through JR's eyes. And because what he saw and decided to show us was the "Comunidade", the community, that particularity that makes a favela way more than just a slum.

He choose to work in Rio's oldest favela, Providencia, and used the walls of the favela to show giant portraits of women from the community. The result is an amazing visual, giant eyes and smiles looking at you as you drive by the favela.

He didn't stop there and used the whole favela as an exhibition hall, putting up pictures of kids and residents all over the wall, pictures that do not just show but illustrate the life of the community. As if you were looking at memories, moments that already happened there....

JR's work wasn't just about taking pictures. He met the residents, talk to them, discovered their way of life and its difficulties. He got a glimpse of Rio's government amazing politic when it comes to the favelas: Putting up a renovating project that, in fact, will only concern the few houses you can see from the street, leaving the poorest families live in made-out-of-wood houses. JR recounts in the 28 millimetros book how he met one of those families, whose house at the top of the hill was built in the 60's.... After talking to the community, JR's crue offered to rebuild the house in rough-stone.
I visited the original house, used for a video installation for the exhibit. You wouldn't imagine what it's like. And I definitely cannot imagine a family of 9 nine living in there.

JR's wonderful work moved me and showed the favela as I know and love it. No guns, no drugs... just smiles, kids playing and people laughing. Amazing how, one more time, it takes a foreigner to show the true heart of the favela.
His movie, Women are heroes, is currently being presented at the Cannes festival.

Links:

http://jr-art.net

http://jr.blogs.liberation.fr/photographies

Ponto de Equilibrio - Janela da Favela

Rocinha

Rocinha is by far Rio's most famous favela. Home of many favela tours, she's the easiest one to access and has always been considered the biggest favela in south america,which is not true anymore. She even has her own Wikipedia   page, where you'll find some interesting facts... You'll learn that it is located between Gavea and Sao Conrado, on a hill called "Dois irmaos" or "Two brothers". You'll learn that it's run by a drug gang. You'll learn about police raids and drug selling. But you wont learn anything about its residents and what it's like to live in Rocinha. So let me present you a census realised in the community and publied by the Observatorio de favelas , a brasilian ngo encouraging a reflexion on the future of the favela. You will read a lot about them in those pages as I am a huge fan of their work.

The census was realised in july 2009 in Rocinha and recensed 38 029 buildings for 100 818 residents and a majority of women (51,5%).
Rocinha, according to the census, is also home for 6508 businesses. The unemployement rate is, on my owm french opinion, incredibly low with 7,7% and 23,5% of the questionned people are reportedly currently studying.

People were also asked about their living arrangement's main problems : natural lighting and ventilation came first (41, 8% each), lack of space and humidity were also widely invoked. Just to explain, a favela is basicaly a labyrinth of one meter wide alley-ways. You basicaly needs to keep the light on all the time and can't really expect the fresh air to enter your livingroom...

According to the census, 86% of the buildings are connected to the sewing system. What they don't tell you is that the sewing system in rocinha is an open one, which means that along the street runs the filthiest river you've ever seen.....

Also what a census wont ever tell you is the noise of a favela. Its music blasted all the time, pagode during the day and Funk during the night, it's moto taxis everywhere, people yelling, kids laughing, dogs yapping.... and birds singing.

Getting Started

It took me some time to start this blog and start documenting my experience in Rio de Janeiro - a year exactly. Maybe I needed to learn the language, maybe I needed to know more about the culture, the politic and the way things work in Brazil. Maybe I needed to come close to the end of that first experience to look back at what happened this year, what I learned and what I can now share. I can now, if not understand, at least have my own opinion about the favela and the national politics regarding it.

Janela para favela means “ a window to the favela”. It’s my own point of vue, the point of vue of an outsider, the point of vue of a french woman volunteering in Rio’s biggest community. I do not live in Rocinha, I am not brasilian. I am an outsider in every sense of the word. And as much as I am involve in the community, I look at it with a distance, I observe it and try to understand it with a great passion.

Also, don’t expect me to use the word slum to refer to Rocinha - or any favela for that matter. It sure sticks to the definition but its way more than that : a favela is a “comunidade”, a community. It’s an unbelievable network, it’s a family, it’s a village. It’s solidarity at his best, it’s kids running around, music 24hours a day, mototaxi, vans, a labyrinth of alley-ways... and, indeed, some not so nice things. But we’ll talk about it later.

With the olympics and the world cup coming, Rio is trying to evolve and kill that image of insecurity it is carrying. In that way, I think that last semester, from october the 2nd, 2009 and on, was decisive. From the UPPs (Unidade de Policia Pacificadora) to the rain storm and its 300 victims, through the World Social Forum, the future of the favela is starting to make the news and is soon going to be an issue Rio’s government can’t avoid anymore.

Natal da Rocinha - Christmas at I2I

December the 19th, the Christmas party. Finally!
It was well deserved for everyone: For the volunteers that spent a countless amount of time collecting gifts around the city, for the kids that were excitingly waiting for it and for the I2I family to finally have an excuse to get together and share some laughters before the holidays.

It started with a piece about the nativity, starring volunteers ( my dear canadian friend alain made a terrific Jesus) and kids. Then the dance class put up a great show for us and everyone ended up dancing around before the gifts were given to the kids.

Christmas this year was a really interesting period for me  : Through my facebook campaign  to collect gifts, I discovered how people were moved by the I2I project and how they were willing to help. Friends of friends gave us books and pens, some offered to ship gifts from abroad, formers volunteers sent donations... That generosity moved me a lot and for the first time, I felt I was doing something good.

I also discovered how wrong people were telling me that no Carioca will ever support or help our project as they just reject the favelas. The biggest donations I received were from Cariocas. It's true, very few are doing volunteer work in NGOs, unless they are from the community. But it's hard to be willing to enter a favela when you grew up watching the brazilian news... but let's discuss that in another post.

I also realised that, being at the institut a few days a week, without really speaking portuguese, I wasn't seeing the whole picture... But by december I was getting close to fluent and could start having conversations with the organisation's direction. And I discovered that I had no idea what was going on in some kids' families. I would have that picture of noisy, happy, smiling kids and a very romantic image of the favela. It's such a happy place you just tend to forget that people just don't choose to live there. They have to. They can't afford anything else. And some families can't afford buying food, clothes and school supplies for their children. I discovered a whole reality I wasn't even suspecting. So christmas was also the occasion for I2I to buy some basic products (rice, beans, milk, oil...) for 5 students' families along with clothes for the students themselves. In Brazil, school year begins in february and it's a tradition to give children a backpack and some clothes for them to start the new semester. So we followed the tradition, hoping it will lead them to a terrific new year studying both in school and with us.

So it was my first christmas away from home and  it wasn't an easy one but I learned a lot and I felt a great amount of love surrounded by all those happy faces at the I2I Christmas party.