Favela Rising documents a man and a movement, a city divided and a favela (Brazilian squatter settlement) united. Haunted by the murders of his family and many of his friends, Anderson Sa is a former drug-trafficker who turns revolutionary in Rio de Janeiro’s most feared slum.

Through hip hop music, the rhythms of the street, and Afro-Brazilian dance he rallies his community to war against the violent oppression enforced by teenage drug armies and sustained by corrupt police.

At the dawn of liberation, just as collective mobility is overcoming all odds and Anderson’s grassroots AfroReggae movement is at the height of its success, a tragic accident threatens to silence the movement forever.

Favela Rising
ICA, London
10 March 2006
Running Time: 80 min.
Medium: 16mm Film/ 24P DV