Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Abstract


Grosso Calibre is a documentary that uses forbidden funk music (funk proibido) to address the impact of arms on the violent environment in Complexo do Alemão, a huge group of favelas in the northern part (Zona Norte) of Rio de Janeiro. Mc Smith, a funk music star of the community, provides the voice and music that runs like a thread through the film. He shows how people live amid the fighting between the heavily armed traffickers and a police often accused of generalized human rights violation. The aim is to look closely at the social damages caused by the banalization of the massive presence of high-caliber weapons in these people's lives. Due to this situation Grosso Calibre suggests the necessity of an international arms trade treaty to solve this problem.
photo: Thiago Vieira, Ludmila Curi and Guilherme Arruda