Morro da Favela

The story of the Candeal favela in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, where musician Carlinhos Brown carries out social and cultural initiatives that protect and enrich the lives of its inhabitants every day.

É Pra Mudar, Muleke - Uma Vida no DEGASE

Four researchers record their perceptions as they walk through the patch of the BR-116 that goes through Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, looking for characters who’ve had their lives connected throughout the highway. The BR-116, the largest road in Brazil, crosses 10 states and connects Fortaleza to the municipality of Jaguarão, at the Uruguayan border, while also going through Canoas, splitting the city in two. The documentary brings testimonies from different people who share their life stories. “A Highway Movie” (2025) is the work that concludes Wender Zanon’s trilogy on Canoas, which starts with “This Is Canoas, Not Poa” (2021), followed by “Essays on a city” (2024).

The documentary shows the awakening of the poor youth to social consciousness in the identification of life that imitates art with art that imitates life. It is the São Paulo chapter of the cultural history of national rap in the voice of its main exponents.

GLAUBER MARCADO PARA MORRER

Pedagogia do Abandono

Pelé, a retired nurse, revisits his memories as a performer in the Boi Tira-Teima group from Caruaru, Pernambuco. Between longing for the past and the impossibility of celebrating Carnival in the present, he imagines what it would be like to return to Carnival one last time.

Brazil's "Red Command" drug cartel is considered a plague by the government. But for the people of the favelas they control, Red Command *is* the government. They’re the de facto leadership of the area. The gang has taken over the role of the authorities in their shanty towns, where the state has long abandoned them. Away Days got special access to the Rio favelas, hanging out out with young foot-soldiers, speaking to commanders, and seeing how civilians live between the gangs and the equally violent police militias.

KMD5

Between 2011 and 2014, the documentary investigated the changes in Rio de Janeiro on behalf of mega-events: UPPs in slums, forced evictions, public spaces privatization and popular uprisings.

A boxer in Rio's favelas opens a club to help keep kids out of the burgeoning drug trade.

The short documentary ‘Complexos‘ features intimate and emotional views on how residents of favelas in Rio de Janeiro use media and arts to raise their voices and act for justice, dignity and respect. ‘Complexos’ is part of a collaborative process between the Finland-based Anti-Racism Media activism Alliance (ARMA Alliance) and the favela-based audiovisual collective Cafuné na Laje.

The women of the first Garífuna community in Honduras work hard for the future of their daughters. Surrounded by a dazzling landscape, they celebrate their identity and the importance of maternal figures.

São Paulo: Uma Cidade Segregada

Founding a social Muay Thai project in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Mestre BG and his competitors face the adversities of an underfunded project and fight to win their place on the podium. The challenges intensify when one of the students, Raíssa Pacheco, secures a spot to compete in a South American championship in Uruguay.

L'Homme de Rio - A vida loca

No Rio de Janeiro, a 13 km do Cristo Redentor, dois portugueses aventuraram-se na mais temida favela do Brasil, onde moram mais de 300.000 pessoas - o Complexo do Alemão. Em 2007, no período de maior tensão e violência no Rio de Janeiro, viveram a maior operação policial já realizada no estado, sentiram na pele como é a vida de um simples morador. O filme retrata este perigoso e complexo mundo, um universo paralelo inserido dentro de uma ordem maior, um mundo à parte, que segue uma ordem diferente da ordem global.

Enawenê-nawê: Os Homens-Espíritos

The Favela Pacification Program was launched in 2008 to reduce crime and drug trafficking in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In April 2015 however, police shot and killed 10-year old Eduardo in Complexo do Alemão, causing uproar in that community. Alemão and other pacified communities began to realise that the program had become the very thing it was designed to destroy. Taking place in the build to the 2016 Olympic Games, this is the side of Rio that you have never seen before.

Sixty-six adolescents, residents of Favela da Maré, were selected to participate in a dance show led by the choreographer Ivaldo Bertazzo, which incorporated their own daily experiences. Ten years later, directors David Meyer and Helena Soldberg search for some of the participants of this experience.