maré

Today was one of the best days of my entire life.

Bridget (pictured below) brought me to work with her in Maré, a huge favela here in Rio that I learned today is actually made up of seventeen smaller communities. For the last two months here Bridget and her partner Carlos have been teaching the kids here to use video cameras to document their daily lives.

They have obviously picked up on it, and are tremendously talented. Most of the shots (including the one above) in this entry were taken by the kids, not me.

Here is the galera (crew) checking out some of last week's edits with Carlos before we hit the streets this afternoon.

Leandro, below, took a handful of the photos with this entry. He's only fifteen, but that didn't keep him from getting my number after he interviewed me extensively on film.


He's clearly really talented, and also pretty opinionated. He was against keeping the bike in this shot, but I like it. When I translated the passage below, he said, "see, now you understand our rappers."

It says:

The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of those who do wrong, but because of those who observe and allow the wrongdoing to occur.

Here is someone who is the absolute antithesis of that statement.
Bira, pictured above, is a leader in the community and a huge advocate for the kids as well as the program that brings people like Bridget and Carlos to work in Maré. The feeling I got today was that Bira's blessing (and heeded advice) made it safe for us to be out with the kids and the cameras. I'm hoping to spend some more time with him tomorrow, and will be able to report more on the specifics then. For now, what I can tell you is how inspired I feel by my day with people like Bira,

Mary,

Vanesi,

Eduarda,


Joao, Alessandro

and Leandro.



After a long day of cruising and shooting we got a couple packages of cookies, stopped to watch some futebol and the winter sun turned golden.


Someone's car rigged with speakers on top played music while the kids played,

these girls mugged for the camera,

these guys got their kite out of the power lines,

and all seemed right with the world.