{"id":33409,"date":"2016-10-08T05:54:56","date_gmt":"2016-10-08T08:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=33409"},"modified":"2025-08-07T12:07:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T15:07:06","slug":"images-and-complexes-film-festival-in-manguinhos-celebrates-favela-film-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=33409","title":{"rendered":"Images and Complexes Film Festival in Manguinhos Celebrates Favela Film Production"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

From September 29 to October 2, the Cine Manguinhos<\/a> in the Manguinhos<\/a> favela in the North Zone<\/a> of Rio de Janeiro hosted the first ever Images and Complexes Film Festival<\/a>, featuring 30 films produced by favela residents from communities throughout the city.<\/p>\n

The Images and Complexes<\/a>\u00a0collective has been active since 2012, hosting film screenings and cinema club events in various favela communities. The collective is comprised of individuals involved in audiovisual production from several different favelas, including Manguinhos, Rocinha<\/a> and Complexo do Alem\u00e3o<\/a>, and has worked in partnership with a number of favela-based groups including TV Tagarela<\/a> and Ra\u00edzes em Movimento<\/a>. This year marks their first ever film festival, made possible with the financial sponsorship of electric utility Light, as well as partnerships with government programs including Favela Criativa<\/a>\u00a0and the State Secretariat for Youth, Sport and Recreation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

The aim of the film festival is to provide a space for favela residents to showcase self-made audiovisual production, presenting stories and images that both expand and go beyond the issue of violence<\/a> that so often dominates\u00a0mainstream cinematic representations of favelas.<\/p>\n

Fabiana Melo Sousa is one of coordinators and curators of the festival, and was born and raised in Rocinha. She explains the motivation behind creating this space:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the Olympics<\/a> came and hosted that opening ceremony<\/a>, it used the aesthetics of the favela\u2013the architecture, funk, colors, black bodies, and dancing\u2013to the point that I think today things are quite different from when I was a child. The difference is that nowadays you can no longer think of Rio de Janeiro without thinking of favelas. Cinema did this; cinema brought the favela into the imagination of Brazil, and has transformed the outside world\u2019s way of imagining Rio. Nevertheless we believe that it is imperative to decentralize this gaze, because even productions with the best of intentions continue to privilege narratives of violence\u2026 The name Images and Complexes is meant exactly in the sense of ‘complicating’ these images from various points of view, and decentralizing this representation.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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

Ludmila Oliveira, also coordinator and curator of the festival, and a\u00a0resident\u00a0of Manguinhos, further explains the motivation of the festival:\u00a0\u201cWhat we have here is something unprecedented, because I have never seen a festival that gives prominence to works coming from favelas…\u00a0The idea is to emphasize\u00a0who is directing the film, ensuring that they are from the favela.\u201d<\/p>\n

The festival also nurtures exchanges between favela-based film producers who would otherwise have no space or platform to discover each other’s work, let alone participate in creative exchange and debate. The hope is to cross the divide between communities, which remain segregated due to lack of access<\/a>. The vast majority of\u00a0viewers who came to the screenings were favela residents. For many, it was their first time in Manguinhos, and likewise their first time in a movie theater located within a favela. Indeed, Cine Manguinhos is one of only two favela-based cinemas in Rio.<\/p>\n

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

The film festival accepted applications from August 1 until August 31 by way of an online form advertised on the festival\u2019s Facebook page and in articles published by several online news sources. Applicants were free to submit productions of any quality, even material filmed with cell phones. The final selection of 30\u00a0films was announced on September 12.<\/p>\n

Once the team of five curators selected the films that would be screened at the festival, they noticed common themes and decided to group the films accordingly in the program. The themes included: women\u00a0directors in favelas; the gaze from within; poetry and complexes; the environment; fiction; housing; and the real and the symbolic.<\/p>\n

The selected films presented a diverse range of genres, including documentary, drama, and experimental. In the women directors theme,\u00a0Favela que me viu Crescer<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(The Favela that Saw\u00a0Me Growing Up) documents the lives of a group of elderly women in\u00a0the Jacarezinho<\/a> community.<\/p>\n