Favela Rising

Anderson Sá grew up in a favela in Rio de Janeiro. In his youth he dealt drugs. He lost many of his family and his friends to killings. Those losses push him onto another road. He stops answering violence with violence. He founds a movement called AfroReggae. The instruments of the movement are music and dance. Hip hop, the rhythm of the street and Afro Brazilian dance come together. He offers the children of the neighbourhood something other than a gun. Two forces stand against him. One is the drug gangs made up of teenagers. The other is the corrupt police that keep them going. As the movement grows, Anderson becomes known. Just as things are coming together, an accident happens. The accident threatens to stop everything. Anderson Sá and José Júnior speak in the eighty two minute documentary. It is a Brazilian and American production Jeff Zimbalist and Matt Mochary finished in 2005.