US Favela Tour -- Bronx Museum of the Arts

Thank you very much to all who attended the screening of Favela Rising at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, for making the night a huge success. Participants included executive directors and staff from Bronx-based organizations that work with at-risk youth and primarily use art (music, dance, hip hop,poetry, film) in their programs. Some of the organizations that attended the screening were DreamYard, The Bronx Council on the Arts, The Bronx River Alliance, PS 1, New Settlement Apartments, and The Bronx Academy. After the film, we had a network reception to discuss future collaborations amongst the organizations as well as with the film. With this event, we sought to encourage and inspire these community leaders with a film that we feel exemplifies their work. Favela Rising indeed resonated throughout the audience and with these leaders, and more screenings were established. The US Favela Tour continues to move forward throughout the Bronx and the rest of the country.

Interview: Matt Mochary

Part Two of Cinematical's conversation with the directors of Favela Rising - this one with Matt Mochary - is online now.

Powell River, British Columbia

Favela Rising will show at the Powell River Film Festival, Friday, February 18th.

Their page devoted to the film is here. Complete festival schedule is here.

Brooklyn Favela: Thomas Jefferson High School (Brooklyn, NY)

There is a private daytime screening for Thomas Jefferson High's 1700 students and staff tomorrow, January 17.

Time to be announced.

NPR Speaks to Favela Rising Directors

The National Public Radio's interview with Jeff Zimabalist and Matt Mochary is available online.

Interview: Jeff Zimbalist

Part One of Cinematical's interview with Jeff Zimbalist is online now.

Palm Springs Film Festival

The Palm Springs Film Festival wraps today and includes a morning screening of Favela Rising.

The local Desert Sun features the film in their Best Of The Fest rundown.

2005 Best of the Festival film - Annapolis

Friday January 13th: Favela Rising will be presented as 2005 Best of the Festival at the Annapolis Film Festival and Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts.

7:30 p.m., Friday, 801 Chase Street, Annapolis.

Part of the MHCA Independent Film Series

Favela Rising at the Mountain Top Film Festival

The Burlington Free Press on the third annual MountainTop Human Rights Film Festival in Burlington Vermont.

It begins Wednesday and includes screenings of Favela Rising.

Complete schedule here.

"The people in the favelas are victims twice over"

Violence in the favelas is on the American news radar with this piece in the Baltimore Sun, focusing on the December 3 murder of 5 in Rio.

The gunmen were police officers. 4 of the 5 dead were teenagers:

...after hearing the officers' conflicting accounts and visiting the bar where the killings took place, members of the state's human rights commission said there were "very strong indications" that the boys had been summarily executed - that the only shots were fired by the police.

One of the victims was 11-year-old Wellington Santiago, who had stopped at the bar with friends to buy sodas for a birthday party they were on their way to attend.

"He was shot five times, in the head, in the stomach, which destroyed his internal organs, and the arm," said Fernanda de Oliveira, his mother. "He was killed in such a brutal way. So very cruel."

Wellington was a conscientious student who had nothing to do with drugs, de Oliveira said.

She described police incursions as a constant horror in Morro do Estado, the favela where she lives: "They invade all the time. The schools are constantly closing" because of confrontations between police and drug traffickers.

Twelve officers have been detained in the killings.

Read the entire piece by Henry Chu.

Launch of the "US Favela Outreach Tour" in East Harlem, NYC

On Friday, January 13th in East Harlem, NYC, the Favela Rising Outreach Team will launch the "US Favela Outreach Tour", a multi-city tour of screening worskhops in inner-city, American favelas. Brooklyn, Bronx, Harlem and South Cenral Los Angeles will have multiple high school, after-school, public and rally screenings to raise human teenage capital from their streets to their local youth arts centers accross the country. Free screenings to captive youth in their OWN neighborhoods with representatives for the local drum, dance or spoken word team on the scene for immediate recruitment... the Favela Rising Movement continues!