NGO-Action: Urban Activism in Brazilian Film and Society

Abstract

In recent years there has been a boom of films about social exclusion and violence in Rio de Janeiro, a city that is a postcard of the socio-political contradictions plaguing Brazil. With this a new cadre of characters has emerged: the urban social activists associated with non-governmental organizations, or NGOs(or ONGs in Portuguese) who serve as a narrative link between viewers and the drug traffickers, prison inmates, street children, police, and residents of favelas portrayed in these films. This article focuses on the presence of these urban social activists and the organizations they represent to explore linkages between filmmaking, community activism, entertainment, and solidarity in three films set in Rio: Tropa de Elite (Padilha, 2007), Falcao: Meninos do Trafico (MV Bill and Athayde, 2006), and Favela Rising (Zimbalist and Mochary, 2005), Laying out scholarly formulations for evaluating film about poverty in Brazil side by side with arguments about humanitarian activism not only draws attention to the dangers of superficiality in action and art for reinforcing oppression but also underscores the benefits of deep and persevering solidarity for working against it-in social activism, filmmaking, and other artistic and scholarly investigation.

No cinema contemporaneo, tem-se visto uma proliferacao de filmes sobre a exclusao social e violencia no Rio, cidade cartao postal das contradicoes socio-politicas do Brasil. Tem surgido uma nova camada de personagens cinematograficos, os ongueiros de organizacoes nao-governamentais, como elo entre os traficantes, presidiarios, meninos de rua, policiais e favelados comuns retratados nesses filmes-e como ligacao narrativa dos filmes com o publico maior. Como a propria producao de filmes de indole social, a funcao desses ativistas sociais e das ONGs em que trabalham tem provocado grandes debates sobre sua interacao com cultura popular, entretenimento e ate turismo e sua eficacia em promover a justica social. Neste ensaio, comparo representacoes de ONGs cariocas em tres filmes – Tropa de Elite, Falcao: Meninos do Trafico e Fevela Rising – para considerar os desafios da acao social hoje em dia e oferecer um modelo de solidariedade que abrange atores de todas as classes sociais.