{"id":18208,"date":"2014-10-02T17:40:29","date_gmt":"2014-10-02T20:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=18208"},"modified":"2025-08-07T12:08:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T15:08:08","slug":"at-point-blank-a-documentary-about-police-violence-in-favelas-film-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=18208","title":{"rendered":"At Point-Blank: A Documentary About Police Violence in Favelas and Beyond [FILM REVIEW]"},"content":{"rendered":"

A screening of\u00a0\u00c0 Queima Roupa<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(At Point-Blank), followed by a debate on police violence<\/a>, was part of Rio International Film Festivel 2014<\/a>\u00a0on Friday September 26. The documentary produced and directed by Theresa Jessouroun is an investigation into the violence and corruption that have plagued Rio de Janeiro’s low-income neighborhoods over the past 20 years. While historical in a sense, the issues it sheds light on continue into the present day<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While\u00a0\u00c0 Queima Roupa <\/em>is\u00a0made up of an impressive collection of original event footage, Jessouroun was also able to locate and interview many primary witnesses and victims of violence specifically for the film.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Beyond a rich survey of witnesses and victims, other figures provided important perspectives as well. Jo\u00e3o Tancredo, an attorney who spent some of his childhood living in Vig\u00e1rio Geral<\/a> where the film begins its story in 1993–year of the\u00a0Vig\u00e1rio Geral chacina<\/em><\/a>, or massacre–is heavily featured as he has personally fought for justice and compensation for many of the innocent victims of police chacinas<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most intriguing interviewee is Ivan, a former police informant who played a role in hundreds of homicides committed by the police and was only released from prison this year after serving a reduced sentence of 17 years due to cooperation with investigators. Ivan detailed how Rio’s Military Police<\/a> would take drug traffickers’<\/a> products or weapons to\u00a0sell to another trafficking group for profit. He explained how police referred to this as “the spoils of war.” He also said they would re-use the same truck full of marijuana at up to ten\u00a0different media events to maintain\u00a0an image of successful policing.<\/p>\n

\"Debate<\/a>
\nAfter telling the story of\u00a0multiple police massacres in Rio–indiscriminate killings of favela residents in retaliation for a corrupt drug deal gone wrong with traffickers–the film reaches its climax with the murder of a judge<\/a>, Patricia Acioli, who had just convicted military policemen of corruption on the day of her death. Not only does the film illustrate the lack of respect for human rights<\/a> in Rio’s favelas but, with the killing of Acioli, the disregard for justice and the State itself by police.<\/p>\n

The documentary\u00a0stands out due to the brutally graphic images a feature film like Tropa de Elite<\/em>\u00a0(Elite Squad) might spare its viewers. Far from sensationalist, it simply aims to present a reality that most Brazilians have been unwilling to confront. Ignacio Cano<\/a>, a sociologist at the Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ) who helped\u00a0with\u00a0the production of the film, spoke strongly in a debate that followed the screening, asserting that “as long as Brazilian society believes that a good criminal is a dead criminal” its people are going to suffer these injustices.<\/p>\n

Some ultimately see the police culture of violence as a legacy of\u00a0Brazil’s dictatorship<\/a>. This sentiment was expressed in the film by former Rio Governor\u00a0Leonel Brizola<\/a> in his response to the 1993 Vig\u00e1rio Geral massacre but panelists at Friday’s screening also made the connection.<\/p>\n

Right now Jessouroun and her colleagues are trying to raise funds to make the film more accessible<\/a> and distribute it widely in\u00a0Brazil. They believe that broader distribution will stimulate the debate\u00a0needed to address what has become a tragically common practice<\/a> in Rio’s favelas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A screening of\u00a0\u00c0 Queima Roupa\u00a0(At Point-Blank), followed by a debate on police violence, was part of Rio International Film Festivel 2014\u00a0on Friday September 26. The documentary produced and directed by Theresa Jessouroun is an investigation […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":18312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1288,1290,1333,1334,336,1329],"tags":[125,602,25,1475,918,37,17,30,253],"writer":[1416],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-highlight","8":"category-civilsociety","9":"category-event-reports","10":"category-reviews","11":"category-violations","12":"category-by-international-observers","13":"tag-drug-traffic","14":"tag-film","15":"tag-human-rights","16":"tag-leonel-brizola","17":"tag-military-police","18":"tag-north-zone","19":"tag-police-brutality","20":"tag-urban-violence","21":"tag-vigario-geral","22":"writer-ian-waldron"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18208"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81348,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18208\/revisions\/81348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18208"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=18208"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=18208"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=18208"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=18208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}