5X FAVELA, NOW BY OURSELVES
Brazil. 2010. Dir.: Wagner Novais, Luciano Vidigal, Cacau Amaral, Manaíra Carneiro, Luciana Bezerra, Cadu Barcellos, Rodrigo Felha. Digital projection. 103 min. Drama and comedy.
Original Portuguese version with English subtitles
November 27th at 5pm
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5x Favela, Agora por Nós Mesmos is a low-key production composed of five short films all written, directed, and acted by promising artists from the favelas of Rio, premiered as part of the Official Selection of Cannes Film Festival.

Source of Income
Directors: Manaíra Carneiro and Wagner Novais
A young man fulfils his dream to go to Law University, but is faced with difficulties paying for his expenses in terms of books and transportation. He feels tempted to sell drugs to his friends at university, thus raising the money to fund his studies.

Rice and Beans
Director: Rodrigo Felha and Cacau Amaral
Wesley, a young boy, listens to a confession by his father: he is tired of the household menu, always consisting of a plate filled with rice and stewed beans. The boy, joined by his friend Orelha, decides to find some money to buy a chicken.

Concert for Violin
Director: Luciano Vidigal
The children Márcia, Jota and Ademir vow to remain friends forever. Later, in their adulthood, Jota is involved in drug trafficking while Ademir has joined the police force. If the two are brought against each other, Márcia may be prevented from fulfilling her dream to play the violin.

Let If Fly
Director: Cadu Barcelos
Flávio lets his friend’s kite fall across the other quarter of the favela, which is run by a rival gang. Even though he is aware of the prohibition, Flávio decides to collect the kite.

Let There Be Light
Director: Luciana Bezerra
On Christmas Eve, the shanty town hill has been out of power for three days. The engineers who have been sent over by the power utility company have not managed to fix the problem. The residents kidnap one of the engineers, taking him as a hostage until the light supply is restored.


Directors: Wagner Novais, Luciano Vidigal, Cacau Amaral, Manaíra Carneiro, Luciana Bezerra, Cadu Barcellos e Rodrigo Felha | Script: Rafael Dragaud | Editor: Quito Ribeiro | Sound: Guto Graça Melo  | Producers: Renata de Almeida Magalhães, Carlos Diegues  | Production Company: Luz Mágica Produções Audiovisuais Ltda. | With: João Carlos Artigos, Flavio Bauraqui, Zózimo Bulbul, Vitor Carvalho

Awards in Festivals:
2010 Paulínia Film Festival (award):
Best Picture
Best Supporting Actress – Dila Guerra
Best Actor – Marcio Vitto
Best Screenplay
Best Editing
Best Music
19th Festival Biarritz:
Best Film – Audience Award


Biography of Directors:

Manaíra Carneiro - Source of Income
Manaíra is a 22-year-old resident of the Higienópolis favela, in the western region of Rio de Janeiro. She is the youngest director of 5x Favela. She started her career at the tender age of 16, as a production trainee for the Cidadela/Cinemaneiro NGO, which offers free introductory audio visual courses. She is currently a graduate student in Cultural Studies and Media at Fluminense Federal University (UFF, in Rio de Janeiro), and screen writing at Darcy Ribeiro Cinema School. She works at the Ministry of Culture’s Audio Visual Technical Centre.

Wagner Novais - Source of Income
Twenty-six-year-old Wagner was born at Cidade de Deus, in the western region of Rio de Janeiro. He started his professional career in 2005, as a promoter in the Cinema para Todos (Cinema for All) project, run by the government of the State of Rio de Janeiro. He has written scripts, directed and edited several short films. He directed the short film Tempo de Criança in 2009, which was awarded a prize by the Ministry of Culture. He is a student of cinema at Estácio de Sá University, and cinematographic direction at the Darcy Ribeiro Cinema School.

Cacau Amaral - Rice and Beans
Cacau lives in Caxias, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, and is 37 years old. Having a proven experience as a director, script writer, video editor, audio editor, soundtrack, and musical producer for videos, Cacau has already been awarded several prizes for his short films. He currently works on developing two documentaries which deal with black culture in Brazil and is one of the directors of the TV show Espelho, on the Canal Brasil channel.

Rodrigo Felha - Rice and Beans
Rodrigo is a resident of Cidade de Deus, located to the west of Rio de Janeiro, and is 30 years old. Rodrigo has started his career as a trainee at broadcasting giant TV Globo, and has worked for seven years as head of the Audio Visual Centre of the Central Única das Favelas (CUFA) NGO, at Cidade de Deus, and has graduated in cinematographic direction at the Darcy Ribeiro Cinema School. During this period, Rodrigo has had the opportunity to take part in several TV productions and documentaries. His work includes direction of photography in the award winning documentary Falcão-Meninos do Tráfico.

Luciano Vidigal - Concert for Violin
A resident of Vidigal favela, in the Southern region of Rio de Janeiro, Luciano is 32 years old. As well as being an actor and drama teacher at Nós do Morro NGO, Luciano also directs theatre plays and short films. His short film Neguinho e Kika has received awards in the São Paulo, Londrina, Rio de Janeiro and Marseilles (France) festivals. Luciano has worked in preparing the cast for Fernando Meireles’s film, Cidade de Deus, has acted in 13 feature films, including Carlos Diegues’ Orfeu, Walter Salles' O Primeiro Dia, and Jorge Durán's Proibido Proibir.

Cadu Barcelos - Let it Fly
A resident of the Complexo da Maré, in the northern region of Rio de Janeiro, Cadu is 23 years old. Since he was 17, he has promoted courses on the Internet and edition at several NGOs in Rio. He has directed the short film, Feira da Teixeira and the TV program, Crônicas das Cidades, shown on Futura channel. Cadu has also taken part in the Corpo de Dança da Maré dance group, where he acted and danced. Cadu headed the Jpeg project, at the Promundo NGO, in which he led a group of youths that promoted health and gender equality actions.

Luciana Bezerra - Let There be Light
A resident of Vidigal favela, in the southern region of Rio de Janeiro, Luciana is 35 years old. She started to study drama in 1992, with the Nós do Morro group, taking part in several stagings as an actress, costume designer, director, writer, and playwright. She has completed several training programmes on direction assistance and production, research and co-writing of scripts, and has taken part in the casting research and acting workshop for the film, City of God. She was awarded a prize by Riofilme in 2002 for her script of the short film, Mina de Fé, which has additionally been awarded the best short film prize in the 37^th Brasília Film Festival and has taken part in the competitive showings of the Clermont-Ferrand Festival (France), among many other festivals. She currently heads the Nós do Morro cinema group.