Fernando Meirelles

him becoming a photographer. In this “city of god”, Rocket and another guy named “lil ze” both grew up together in a neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. One, Rocket, becomes a photographer and the other becomes a drug dealer. The director, Fernando Meirelles, illustrated a great story of how greed can ruin someone’s life. Lil Ze’ used to be called Lil Dice. He didn’t like getting picked on by the older gang members so he started shooting…

City of God is a thrilling action film set in the oppressive margins of a favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Directed by Fernando Meirelles, the film portrays life in the City of God, a favela that began in the 1960s as a new housing project. Its main characters were children and petty thieves who lived a life surrounded by violence and drug turfs. Narrated by Rocket, a boy who dreams of becoming a photographer, the story focuses on the escalating battle between rival gangs led by the murderous…

In the scene “Thirst to Kill” from City of God (Fernando Meirelles & Katia Lund, 2002) we get a glance into Li’l Ze’s horrific childhood and witness how he developed and satisfied his desire to kill. The film faultlessly captures his desperate hunger for power and thirst to kill with the use of lighting, editing, sound, mise-en-scene, and cinematography to implicitly suggest that Li’l Ze’s lack of positive influences, lack of basic necessities, and lack of respect as a child ultimately skewed…

favela through a limited, privileged perspective and the latter emphasises the diversity of indigenous Latin Americans, avoiding limiting South America, ‘non-European’ and aiming to give indigenous people some form of voice. 'Cidade de Deus ' (Meirelles and Lund, 2002) is constructed in a similar way to a Hollywood 'Gangster Film ', using many of the genre 's tropes to demonise the society it depicts. It is Eurocentric to consider societies outside of Europe as being ones which lack concern…

Fernando Solanas, a pioneer of third cinema, suggests that if films aim for a relatively ‘concrete reality’ and attempt to recreate reality through documentary techniques they can constitute third cinema to an extent (MacBean and Solonas, 39). Through adopting…

each group that was present at the party. For example, during the altercation between Benny and Lil’Ze the music switched from music of fun to one of complete chaos. This was a way of the director gaining the attention of viewers. Director Fernando Meirelles did a great job bringing to light the life of the residents in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Though it was a violently graphic film that would trouble a lot of viewers, it showed the real life situation of many individuals living in…

thousands of dollars on a unneeded security force of 85,000 soldiers. All that money wasted when it would be put to better use for affordable housing and clean water. Their game’s final price tag was estimated to be over 20 billion dollars. Fernando Meirelles says that “We are in a moment in the world where we need to be wise with our money, is it really worth spending billions on a show?” His point is that cities spend billions of dollars they didn’t have. Unfortunately, the…

their own world, with that world’s circumstances, within a larger interconnected world. Both films show how characters are compromised by their circumstances and how these circumstances affect their experience of their world. The directors, Fernando Meirelles of The Constant Gardener, and Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu of Babel, highlight the points above by making specific directorial choices and using particular film techniques which will be examined below. Japan is shown in Babel to be a very…

Slumdog Millionaire (2008) directed by Danny Boyle, and City of God (2002) directed by Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund are both critically acclaimed films that have won multiple awards and changed the scope of the cinematic world. These films are similar in that they follow storylines set in incredibly poor areas of the world-the Juhu slums in Mumbai, and the housing projects outside Rio de Janeiro- and follow the protagonist’s escape from their desolate communities. However, while both films…

City of God Analysis The audience is introduced to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro through the eyes of a panicked chicken escaping his own death. Right away, the cinematography and editing of the film is notable. Cidade de Deus (City of God) (Fernando Meirelles, Brazil, 2002) portrays the effects of organized crime in slums of Brazil supported by poverty, crime and drugs. It focuses on how these hardships influence the paths of two young boys. Li’l Dice (Douglas Silva)—later takes on the persona…