A gringo's eye view of music, art, culture, politics and life in general in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Expect to read about my interests (baile funk carioca, graffiti, favelas, food) as well as my general observations of life in this Cidade Maravilhosa.
It's always a good day when I awake to find new tracks from DJ Edgar in my inbox. This morning's delivery brought to me two new productions he's just completed featuring up and coming Paulista funkiera, Giovanna Avino, better known as MC Gi.
Gi got peoples attention recently when she entered into the running to replace Marina from Bonde do Role. While she didn't win the coveted spot with the group, she did manage to garner props from Brazilian Rolling Stone magazine and producer Edu K.
While I don't have a whole lot more information for you right now on MC Gi, I do know she has a full length CD in the works and there is a good chance these two tracks may find there way onto it. So keep your ear out for more in the future and, until then, enjoys these cuts courtesy of Edgar.
On September 19, 2008 the rest of the world will get a chance to see the newest film from Brazilian director José Padilha, Tropa de Elite or Elite Squad as they're calling it in English. This film, originally released in Brazil in October 2007, is the gritty portrayal of Rio's favela combat unit, BOPE or Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais.
Take a look at the original trailer. It's in Portuguese but you'll get the idea.
Tropa de Elite, set in 1997, tells the story of one BOPE captain ready for retirement, as he's charged with the mission of cleaning up two favelas before a visit to Rio by the Pope. The film delves into issues of corruption, brutality and vengance among the force. It is based on the book Elite de Tropa by Luiz Eduardo Soares and two former BOPE officers, Rodrigo Pimentel and André Batista. The book was an embarrassment to the BOPE and the two contributing officers purportedly caught quite a bit of flack for revealing the dirt on their unit.
Any good story needs a protagonist as well as an antagonist and early reviews of the film have dissed it for leaving the viewer with no one left to root for. Who does one cheer on when everyone is wrong? But this is the situation that exists in Rio; the traficantes run the favelas and the police run their criminal operations on the outside and the city as a whole pays the price.
One controversial aspect of the original book was references by Pimentel and Batista to BOPE as a 'killing machine'. With a logo such as theirs it's a bit hard to think otherwise; a skull crossed with two pistols and pierced through the top with a dagger. Their armored vehicle, the caveirão,outfitted with multiple gun ports and often criticized for its indiscriminate use within the favelas, is known on the street as 'the big skull'.
The war between drug cartels and the police has been going on so long in Rio and has become so convoluted, it's become impossible to tell who's right and who's wrong and whether BOPE is dishing out justice or merely revenge. To borrow from the tittle of a documentary on the subject, it has become 'a personal war'.
One thing that is certain, however, is that the tactics employed by BOPE are severe. The following video was filmed near the entrance to Morro Donna Marta (a favela) in the Bottafogo neighborhood near my home (yet a world away). It shows the BOPE forces preparing to enter the favela for a confrontation with the traficantes. While the ensuing firefight his heard and not seen, the footage is, none the less, quite disturbing. It all kicks off around the 3:21 mark. After the confrontation, the troops withdraw. Note the paramedic strapped with a machine gun around the 4:30 mark and the 'big skull' coming into frame around the 4:45 mark.
While you will be able to glimpse a fictionalized account of this nightmare unfolding from the safety of your local theater on the 19th of September, the residence of these hill side communities have this horror show live in their living rooms (literally) on an all too frequent basis.
*UPDATE* apparently Elite Squad is already available in the US on DVD, already having scene a limited theatrical release courtesy of The Weinstein Company. It will coming to select theaters in the rest of the world this September.
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