"First time I saw a scene of violence... it was in front of a crackhouse." "I was with my mom in a bar... she was drinking with some friends... and I was maybe, I don't know..." "I think I was about 10 years old then." "The drug dealers grabbed some guy, I don't know if he was a cop... or if he'd bought some drugs and hadn't paid for them... and they were beating him up." "They beat him up like this." "And everything was normal around them, people went by..." "In a corner, like that, on the street." "Then I began to turn and I started to see." "My mom covered my face like this." "But she left a gap, like this, and I did this, so I could..." "She thought I couldn't see, but I was looking... through her fingers..." "And the guy was on the floor, badly hurt... and a man shot him in the head... with a Uzi." "And I remember clearly that he shot him point-blank... and I saw some stuff coming out from the other side." "I didn't cry, didn't feel anything." "I stood there, thinking about it... for a while." "I was 10 years old." "And... it was cool." "I'm not afraid to die." "I'm not afraid to die." "The government, for decades... never thought very hard about improving things... about giving quality of life to people in the favela... to the people who live in the favelas, on the hills." "I think that favelas were a little like that... they didn't have..." "they couldn't move... they stood there, still, paralyzed... with their spine severed, you know?" "Always like that." "I was born and raised here." "Here in Vigário Geral." "Vigário Geral is one among more than 600 favelas in Rio de Janeiro." "It 's a favela that was considered the "Brazilian Bosnia"." "While children who lived outside the community... they went to sleep rocked by lullabies... when we were kids... we slept rocked by gunshots, by the sound of people screaming... by the sounds of violence." "It took a while for me to understand that." "Your childhood issues stay with you for the rest of your life." "When I was a kid, I used to dream about being a major drug dealer... some kind of revolutionary drug dealer... and with my power, I'd improve conditions in several favelas." "Just ideas in my head." "My name is Anderson Sá... and a lot of what I know I've learned on the streets." "We used to play at cops and robbers... but no one wanted to play cop, you know?" "And when we played like that, we'd use drug dealers' nicknames." "We'd carve pieces of wood in the shape of handguns... big guns, shaped like a rifle." "We'd play like that." "0ne running after the other... shooting and killing each other." "That was the way we used to play." "I used to have 17 friends in my generation." "Seven of them are dead and about five are doing time." "I never was a drug dealer, I had a minor involvement." "I'd bury guns, pack up drugs, do small favors." "I was in the middle of it, I'd go..." "I've witnessed some torture sessions, some deaths and such." "I was around there, on the verge of crime." "I sell coke and marijuana." "I've got two and five-reais bags of coke." "If I don't work like this, I won't get any work." "I can buy me some clothes, some flip-flops." "I've done two robberies." "I've killed people too." "So I wouldn't starve." "I had to kill them, boss told me to kill them." "Every kind of coke bag has its price." "There's two and five-reais coke bags." "I'll either die or wind up in jail." "The average life expectancy in the drug business is low." " Very low?" " 14 to 25 years." "They're just ass-lickers." "When they see them, they're like: "Wow, look!" "That dude is bad, he's fuckin' cool, man!"" "These girls, they go after the more dangerous guys, you know... the ones who carry handguns, they really draw their attention... they want to date these guys, so they'll be respected in the favela... those girls." "And some guys have motorcycles... them Twister bikes, nice bikes, you know?" "We call these girls "Mary Gasoline"... because they want to date guys who have bikes." "But guys like me never score..." "they forget about us!" "That 's why I'm getting a bike now, to see if I can get some action." "Coke, five reais!" "Three bags for ten!" "Three bags for ten, one for five!" " 100 grams!" " Coke, five reais!" "They make 1,000, 2,000 reais a week." "They make some serious dough just to carry a rifle." "That 's it." "The guys, the criminals here, they grab people and skin them alive." " They tear the skin outta them." " Alive?" "Alive." "Torture." "Alive." "I'm gonna ripout yourtongue" "I'm gonna ripout your finger so you won't point it at me" "I'm gonna ripout yourtongue so you won't talk" " Are you sure?" " No, no, no." "What if someone's listening?" "No, it doesn't work like that." "I'm just explaining..." "I'm not like, "Fuck, they're up there now, they're there..."" "That 's not the way it works." "It 's nothing like that." "I don't know." "I worry about you too, and about me, understand?" "No, no." "It 's not like that." " 0kay, then." " Just grab your camera now... and go up around from behind, up there..." "That 'd be trouble." "Then they'll be like, "Fuck, what are these dudes shooting here for?" "It 's down there"." "That 'd be trouble." "There's this prejudice that everyone is involved... in traffic." "You're segregated by your ZIP code, you know?" "Most of them are upright citizens, they just wanna live... their lives, work, have a nice life." "This is Comando Vermelho turf." "Past Brizolão... when you go up there, looking from Brizolão... it 's Terceiro Comando." "Beyond Brizolão is Parada de Lucas." "A neighborhood." "Every group has its own favela." " Not even residents get through?" " Not even residents." "What 's that?" "Not even residents?" "Some people have family over here and they never see them." " What do you do then?" " You are..." "You don't do anything." "You meet someplace else." "Because before the slaughter, this was Comando Vermelho's HQ." "Why do I say it was Comando Vermelho's HQ?" "All of the drug dealers in Rio de Janeiro... used to gather in Vigário Geral." "I was pretty involved." "They never did anything by night." "They did their deeds by day... bank robberies, kidnappings." "This was before the slaughter, before 1990." "I was talking with three of my buddies... in Praça de Vigário... and there was a cop in Vigário... who was always squeezing residents for money... beating them up." "The drug dealers in Vigário were sick of it, of this guy." "And everybody was afraid of the guy." "Even ourselves, who had nothing to do with it, we were afraid... even people from outside were afraid of him." "I was talking to them, I can still remember..." "I was sitting down, eating a hot-dog... with my three buddies, we were hanging around in the square... where we were brought up, outside." "Then I'm like..." "This police car came from the church hill... from the round plaza, like this, down, and after a second... all I could see was a Kombi van coming... and the police car inching forward... with the four doors open, like this, real slow... and the drug dealers came, also real slow... and he got outside, alone, and shot the four cops." "I saw it." "In August 1993, the favela of Vigário Geral... which is a community of some 20,000, 30,000 people... was stormed by a group of policemen... calling themselves "Running Horses"... and they got into a house... murdering several people, just like that, for... apparently for no reason at all." "Actually, they were avenging..." "Days before, some cops had been murdered... by drug dealers." "But out of those 21 people... murdered that morning, that night... not one of them had anything to do with the drug traffic." "Not one of them had anything to do with drugs." "They were totally innocent people." "That became what I call an anti-postcard from Rio de Janeiro." "Instead of the Christ Redemptor, the beach, the girls... from Ipanema, from Copacabana, that photograph." "When I came to the favela and I saw those bodies..." "I'll tell you something, man..." "That really got to everyone." "And the worst scene I ever saw in my life... was when they laid those bodies on the ground." "It was about 11 PM, I was coming from a funk party..." "I was in front of my house and I saw the Ramboes going past... and those cops just shot anyone they saw on the streets." "The guy died with his lunchbox by his side." "They killed him." "They killed another one back there." "They just killed and killed." "They broke into a house and mowed down a family of 8 Evangelists." "A 15-year-old girl, a 70-year-old gentleman... a lady in her sixties." "They killed everyone." "At that time, in that moment... we knew who were the people who had done that... and if those people were right in front of us, we'd kill them... without any shame, any second thoughts about pulling the trigger." "Honestly." "Because that was a lotta pain." "0ur indignation was huge." "And, unfortunately, Anderson lost his brother that day." "I thought that pain..." "Yeah, in the slaughter." "I thought that pain would make Anderson go into drug dealing... because he'd want to rebel." "When we heard the shots, we went into the house... and then someone came and screamed to my sister." "They were like, "Ana, I think something just happened!"" "I think it was so we'd be prepared." "We went outside to take a look." "We got there, and there he was, dead... along with other people, on the floor, in the bar." "It 's sad to see a person... a relative of yours..." "Even if they did something wrong... to see them like that, in those conditions... it 'd be bad, wouldn't it?" "And when they're innocent, it 's even worse." "Imagine that." "The cops asked for some ID... people reached for their wallets, and just out of the blue... the guy threw a grenade and killed everyone." "Why do they wanna kill one another?" "Why this violence, this hatred?" "There's the violence, and people think about ways to end it." "That 's when I began to find out." "There's the violence, and people think about ways to end it." "It was natural." "I didn't have anything planned out." "There's the violence, and people think about ways to end it." "Actually, I never thought he'd go that far." "What was missing so he'd be involved?" "Nothing." "And actually, he didn't want that, right?" "He didn't think it was nice, he decided to follow another path... and, thank God, I'm proud to be one of his moms." "I am proud to be Anderson's mom." "Really, really proud." "That turbulence, the slaughter, the drug implications... the funk parties, all that rebellion distanced me... and I began paying attention to a better life for myself." "Because I could see that my parents were worried about me... and they didn't want me to go down that wicked path." "Because I had food to eat, I had nice clothes... things that other young people didn't have." "Therefore, somehow, I had to give something back, right?" "In exchange for everything they did for me." "I thought about everything that happened." "I really admired Júnior, his leadership, you know?" "Júnior is the kind of guy who doesn't believe in lost cases." "That person who no one wants to work with... who everyone thinks is beyond redemption... that 's the person he wants, and he manages to change them." "He's a real warrior." "Why not?" "Who says we can't?" "There are no barriers for him." "He breaks them all down." "I met Anderson in a situation... which was completely adverse... because he belonged to a generation which was all decimated... he lost his friends in a process very similar to mine... because I've had many losses in my adolescence." "I think that, if I hadn't lost that many friends... if I didn't have suffered that much in my adolescence... maybe today I wouldn't do what I do." "We are a group that was formed by losers who had a lot of vision." "In our lives, nothing worked out before AfroReggae." "Everything began to work out the moment we created AfroReggae." "That 's the Shiva effect..." "Shiva, the goddess of destruction and transformation." "We are the Shiva effect." "We really believe a lot in that Shiva effect..." "Shiva, the goddess of destruction and transformation." "First there's chaos;" "first there's a problem... and then, it 's like a phoenix born again from its own ashes." "Therefore, we really believe that was a trial." "When I went to write my book in Vigário Geral... that same day, I met this group... which was the boys from AfroReggae, which wasn't a movement yet... they had a little tabloid... and were trying to do something, not to avenge the slaughter... but something that could draw the attention of society... to the reality they lived in." "We really didn't know what a social movement was... we didn't know almost anything." "And we realized we needed a means of communication... to talk about the African-Brazilian culture." "So we created a newspaper called "AfroReggae Notícias"... counting on the good will of some printing shop, usually linked... to a union, or to some university... but we were always in the end of the line." "That was really tough for our own self-esteem... and that 's when people began to leave." "So, maintaining a relationship... even with that group of people who were volunteers, was tough." "Because we had no money, we didn't have anything... no means to survive." "Then one day I was really down in the dumps... remembering the slaughter... and I got into a fight with my girlfriend... with my sister, with my mom, things were bad at my workplace... and I wrote, "I'm pissed / I'm from Vigário /0f that I'm proud..." "I love my community / I'm pissed"." "Then I began to pay attention, to use music and culture... as an instrument of change." "There's the violence, and people think about ways to end it." "Culture is the main instrument of change." "There's the violence, and people think about ways to end it." "You use music and culture as an instrument of change." "Music, because it 's something... through which you can really reach people, right?" "And we came from that thing." "It was hard, the instruments were borrowed... from a group, an Afro band... and we took them to Vigário to rehearse." "And there was someone from outside the community... who taught us percussion." "That 's how we woke up... to that reality." "In the back, it 's..." "So we can make that overture." "This guy's really good, he'll do solo." "I'd like to buy a nice car" "I'd like" "To get on a bike To really enjoy life" "I'd like" "We like all that" "But money, that's what We really don't have" "The formation of the band comes from that." "From the percussion and African dance workshops." "That 's how the AfroReggae band was born." "0ne, two, three, AfroReggae!" "I'm pissed!" "In Vigário Geral only workers died" "August 29, they killed my people I'm pissed!" "21 residents murdered by the hatred and violence of avenging cops" "I'm pissed!" "That cruelty happened because the day before" "Drug dealers killed fourcops" "I'm pissed!" "The right path is the lucky path" "The wrong path can lead you to death I'm pissed!" "I'm from Vigário Of that I'm proud" "I love my community I'm pissed!" "What young people need, man, young people who live... especially young people who live in the favelas, on the hills... in communities, they need references, they need black idols." "What is government?" "It 's power, right?" "The favela has its own faults." "Under several criteria." "Today, a youngster who lives in a favela... he hasn't got many options when it comes to information and culture." "Unfortunately, what leads young people to crime... are designer clothes, status, lack of opportunities... the lack of a structured group to belong in." "Therefore, often they feel... they feel the need to get involved in a structured group." "And in some low-income communities... that structured group would be the local drug ring." "Really loose." "I'm gonna give some pointers to the snare and... the guys with the larger drums will follow suit." "Some rhythmical things, slowly, just so you'll learn more... about division and rhythm." "I'll give you some funks, some... broken tempos, okay?" "Then I'm gonna lead the snare..." "I'll tell the snare to begin." "Then we'll tweak and tweeze it." "When I do this, everyone stops... and we're gonna do other rhythms." "0kay?" "Let 's form it, then." "Come on, come on!" "Here, here." "Let me do first, then you follow." "Here, here." "No, here, here." "Done." "That 's it." "The tempo!" "Just here, here!" "No hurry on the snare." "No hurry." "Just you guys." "Keep going!" "Keep going!" "That 's it." "Just you guys." "0ne, two, three, four!" "In these bands I told you about, the subgroups... we have some ground rules, you don't drink... don't do drugs, don't smoke." "All that turns us into kind of a sect." "That 's like a basic rule for AfroReggae." "This competition between AfroReggae and drug dealers always existed... but for every youngster we took away from them... another three or five were waiting in line." "It was okay for us, because we saved some of them." "But..." "The police occupied Vigário Geral during a year... en masse." "Then it was over, the drug dealers were gone." "In the last ten years, what changed?" "A lot of things changed for the worse." "In the case of the police, in the case of criminals... they went one step ahead... they changed their sphere of action." "These are the specialized troops of the Rio de Janeiro police... the elite troops." "They are the Ramboes in the police... the troops who go uphill first when there's some unrest." "They dress entirely in black, just like those troops... in the US and Britain." "Assault troops." "They dress entirely in black." "They got special training in war and guerrilla techniques." "The Brazilian police, the Rio de Janeiro police... especially the police working in the favelas... is a very corrupt police." "It has always been the police that profited the most from drug traffic." "We always say that drug dealers profit, drug dealers sell... drug dealers make money... but you never see a rich drug dealer... a millionaire drug dealer." "In the favela, they're all dirt poor." "Where does all the money go?" "The money goes to the police." "Police corruption..." "I mean, who put the guns in the favela?" "We know it 's the cops." "Who puts drugs there?" "We know cops are involved in that." "Police corruption may be the main engine... behind all the lack of control within these communities." "Look for the 12th Battalion commander." "We came to the 12th... and there was an exchange..." "a war there..." "This is marijuana and this is cocaine." "0ne... two, three... four, five... six..." "A member of AfroReggae called Paulo Negueba... was shot in the foot by B0PE." "B0PE is the Military Police Special 0perations Battalion." "Paulo was on his way to work... and I think he was mistaken for a criminal." "That was our moment of rage, of hatred, of anger." "We really hated the police then, really hated them." "The utter lack of balance, lack of control by the state... which I don't even consider the sole responsible anymore... because, to revert this degradation... we need to bring together society, public office... private enterprises and the media." "Júnior, Júnior's people... what AfroReggae has been doing, their cleverness... is acknowledging this:" "You can't leave everything to the government." "I think that as long as we keep talking... about some third party responsible, about "them"... things won't improve." "This show is not gonna be just an acoustic guitar." "I think we are beginning to realize... that this solution demands the participation of everyone." "We really mobilized then." "The first thing we did... was a videoclip called "Eu Tô Bolado"... that shows the police committing several atrocities." "I can leave here to get organized I can leave here to get disorganized" "I can leave here to get organized" "I can leave here to get disorganized" "From mud to chaos From chaos to mud" "You can't fool a victim of robbery" "The sun burned, burned The river mud" "I saw a chié walking slowly" "And an aratu coming and going" "I saw a crawfish going south Outta the water, turned into a gabiru" "Josué, I've never seen such a disgrace" "The more the misery the more vultures loom" "Iwent to the market with my basket to steal tomatoes and onions" "An old woman passed by and grabbed my carrot" "Hey, old woman leave my carrot be" "I can't sleepon an empty stomach" "When I filled my tummy I began to think" "That if I get organized I can disorganize" "That if I get organized I can disorganize" "You can't fool a victim of robbery" "The police has to be present... but they have to be present in a way... let 's say, more urban-like, more humane, less terrifying." "Because our cops are also... very poorly paid, poorly prepared, you know?" "And they suffer..." "They may be the workers who are discriminated against the most... the policemen." "I even surprise myself with my calm in some situations." "My mom and my fiancée say..." ""You always think everything's fine, everything's okay." "The world is falling apart, and you're all relaxed"." "I met Anderson... when both of us lived in Vigário Geral... and we always took the same bus, at the same time." "We first met at the bus stop, actually." "The first time we made out was actually on a bus." "From then on, we were only dating, you know?" "It 's been eight years." "Nine years in March." "Thanks." "Great, dude." " Thanks, Tião." " 0kay." "If everything works out fine, by the end of this year... or the beginning of the next, we'll be on our way." "I am afraid of violence, of dying, yes." "0f the way I'll die." "That 's the point." "The way you'll die." "I can be ran over when I cross the street..." "I can catch a stray bullet on my way to work." "Because it 's not only at night." "By day, there's always violence." "Taking a stroll?" " Hi!" " Taking a stroll, gorgeous?" "Anderson really doesn't seem fazed by violence." "You haven't got any money?" "To go back there?" "I've lost a lot of friends." "The feeling was always of loss, of suffering, you know?" "Now I get frustrated." "I've cried a lot." "Even though I'm always calm... sometimes I cry." "By myself." "At home, listening to music." "That 's why I remember my friends... the moments I've lived with them." "I wish they could be by my side today... to see that I'm a different person." "It's on magazine covers It's on newspapers" "The bomb in Rio" "Is Vigário Geral" "It's on magazine covers It's on newspapers" "The bomb in Rio" "You could see how AfroReggae was admired... when Conexões Urbanas began." "Because AfroReggae's work is very strong... very positive to children." "That was when I saw AfroReggae's strength today in the communities... by the point of view of drug dealers." "I think God moves in mysterious ways." "He said: "JB, now it 's your turn"." "Now I talk to drug dealers, I make fun of the guy with the rifle." ""Yo, bro, you gotta leave that shit behind... you gotta join AfroReggae."" "That 's what I tell him." "Because I..." "I'm really a nag." "I'm like, "Yo, fool, you gonna join us too"." "Like JB, there are other examples within AfroReggae." "0ne day, I was with JB at a funk party... and we got mixed feelings, because a drug dealer came to thank us... for the work we did... because a kid from his family... had joined AfroReggae... and he knew that somehow the kid would have a better life... and he wouldn't become a criminal." "Enough blabbering It's time, it's time" "Enough blabbering It's time, it's time" "Enough blabbering It's time, it's time 0ur work goes up against everything... trying to take young people away from them." "But he came to thank us for our work." "Enough blabbering" "Enough!" "AfroReggae" "Conscience, Brazil!" "Here in Vigário, we've got 13 subgroups today." "Before AfroReggae..." "I'd thought about being a criminal... about joining the drug ring." "But when I joined AfroReggae, my whole life changed." "The true" "Love, culture and beauty of Rio" "Were born in the favela" "It 's not her!" "No, not her!" "Some people get all worked up, they'd like to talk, but... if they talk, they can be killed, suffer the consequences... be expelled from the community." "So people live in anguish every day." "After my grandfather died, we began risking more and more... especially in the drug wars, mediating conflicts." "Look at the crowd A fight on the street" "Friends at a party Women in the bar" "In the favela Gunfire and agitation" "A stiff on the train Vigário and Caxias' subway" "Get the city to know A hammer in one hand" "A pencil on the ear of yet another mark" "Rio's explosion is here to stay" "This is its new face Everything's gonna change" "This is dedicated to everyone who likes to go to funk parties!" "It's on magazine covers It's on newspapers" "We're AfroReggae From Vigário Geral" "It's on magazine covers It's on newspapers" "We're AfroReggae From Vigário Geral" "It's on magazine covers It's on newspapers" "We're AfroReggae From Vigário Geral" "This is Vigário Geral" "This is Vigário Geral" "This is Vigário Geral" "This is Vigário This is Vigário Geral" "This is Vigário This is Vigário" "This is Vigário, this is Vigário This is Vigário Geral" "This is Vigário Geral" "What do you do, then?" "You just study?" "No, studying is bad." " Studying is bad." " Why is it bad?" "Because we gotta be at school all day long." "So what?" "You gotta study to do something in life." "What 's your name?" " My name is Richard." " Richard?" "You gotta study, man!" " It 's Murilo." " Who you gonna believe, man?" "No, but you tried to fool me." "He got you straightened out." " You gonna believe him or me?" " I dunno..." "Murilo!" "Why you bullshittin' me?" "You think I'm gonna tell on you?" "I'm from the favela, just like you." "Energy, man!" "What you gonna be when you grow up?" " A criminal." " Bullshit!" "Don't you give me that!" "Especially in front of the camera." "What are you saying?" "You wanna be an honest man!" "You don't wanna suffer." "Criminals die early." " I'd rather be in jail, then." " Six... six criminals died in Vigário." "They die every day." "Crime doesn't pay." " Every day they die..." " Is it worth it?" "You're gonna have money, clothes, everything... but you won't live." "Do you know any 50-year-old criminals?" "No way." "They all die." "You gotta work, Richard Murilo... so you can dress fine, buy gold chains..." " I stole this gold chain." " Quit bullshitting me!" "For God's sake, you can't even steal a look!" "0kay, take my watch, then." "You're from the favela." "From the favela!" "Don't you give me this bullshit about stealing, man!" "Don't you do nothing, bro?" " You don't study, don't do nothing?" " Take swimming lessons." "Soccer, circus, something." "Culture, you know?" " I'd rather be a criminal." " What?" "Quit bullshitting me!" "I'd rather hold a gun." "You see, Richard Murilo?" "People need to realize that Anderson, Altair... and Dada, people from AfroReggae, who are not drug dealers... they have a nice life, they go wherever they want... with dignity, working." "Whenever two groups fought... people'd go to his house, ask for his help." ""Anderson, they took my nephew."" "So he was a kind of spokesman for the community." "I think that Anderson, even though he wants to help... he also needs to think." "He can't always be so openly willing to help... because some people might take advantage of him." "When that happened..." "Who's to say there was no foul play involved?" "So yes, I worry about him." "Because he's always like..." ""I'm gonna save the world", you know?" "Without worrying about what could happen to him... personally." "Look, I can't do this." " It 's your life, right?" " It is." "And I'm very proud of that." "I remember I had this recurring dream, I was falling off a bridge." "And I fell and fell, but I never hit the ground..." "I fell... and fell and fell, but never got anywhere." "Then I'd fall off the bed." "And then I'd wake up." "Sometimes, 4, 3 AM, I'd go to the beach." "Kinda crazy, isn't it?" "But I'd go, because I went there to surf, not to sunbathe." "I began to surf..." "I always saw that on TV and I thought it was nice... so I began to go alone... because I'd relax, I'd forget about everything in the sea, you know?" "About trouble, about life." "I'd be there, in the water, waiting for the best wave." "And I just floated there, concentrating on that." "About 5 in the morning, I'd be back in the favela again." "The government said, let 's set up 20 more communities." "Let 's set up two more every year." "Maybe next year..." "We don't want AfroReggae to be in every community." "To each its own, you know?" "If we did that, we think it 'd be an illusion... it 'd be like McDonald's, one here, another one there... and the essence of the thing would be lost." "So we're cool with it." "Every community has to know what they want, understand?" " What they wanna do." " Because many people... come with a project, "I'm gonna teach this, I'm gonna teach that"." "Do you know what they?" "Maybe they don't want that." "Maybe they want to learn how to recycle materials... how to make papier mâché to generate some income... you know?" "Maybe they don't want to learn how to dance or play... they don't want capoeira lessons." "Maybe they wanna... learn how to do hairstyles." "You know?" "So it 's kinda like that." "In Rio, there are more than 600." "But you don't think about doing this in other states?" "No." "What 's our goal?" "We wanna talk to their leaders... to people who are already doing something in the community... and explain our goals..." "AfroReggae's working methods, all of our history... so they can take care of their own communities." "The favela is kinda revealing itself to the city... like, "Look, besides violence, besides what you read every day... on the newspapers, we also got this, the ability... the creativity and the possibility... of creating music, creating culture... of making our own cultural universe"." "Conexões Urbanas is a big joint project... of AfroReggae and Rio's government... where we do shows within communities... with a big infrastructure, you know?" "The same infrastructure you see in a show on the beach... 20,000 to 50,000 people, within a community." "People feel empowered... because they rarely can see a show... right outside their homes." "Good evening, may I come in" "Go, go, go Good evening, dear sirs" "Go, go, go Good evening, may I come in" "That 's it, Vila Cruzeiro!" "Let 's go!" "AfroReggae!" "Come on, Vila Cruzeiro!" "Let 's shake it!" "This thing I was so afraid of, you know?" "Becoming paralyzed, not being able to move... having no mobility at all." "I don't like to talk about negative things... because I'm kinda paranoid, I think if I... keep thinking about negative thing they may come true." "When I start having negative thoughts..." "I rub my hands, like this, on my head... take them all out, ball them up and throw them away... because I always think they're gonna happen." "Because I'm kinda paranoid..." "I rub my hands, like this, on my head..." "Becoming paralyzed, not being able to move..." "I was in a meeting at Senai... and then we learned that the war had restarted... the war between Lucas and Vigário... a war that 's been going on for 21 years." "My God!" "Friday was the day when Parada de Lucas invaded..." "Vigário Geral." "And I got in the middle of it because I thought somehow..." "I could avoid the deaths of innocent people... if I could be heard within the community." "Because the residents were joining... in the drug dealers' fight." "That was a fight between drug circles... and they shouldn't get involved in a drug war, right?" "And then Lucas' residents spread a rumor in Parada de Lucas... that I'd thrown them out with a rifle and two guns in my belt... with AfroReggae's T-shirt tied around my head." "They made up a big lie... saying that Anderson had raped some girl... that he was carrying a rifle... and he had kidnapped 20 people from Parada de Lucas." "Even though the whole story was absurd, everyone believed it... in Parada de Lucas." "More than 200 people, hours later... tried to lynch Anderson." "Some of our guys said, "Let 's run away... let 's go, let 's close everything down, let 's go!" "Those guys will be here looking for us!"" "And I was like, "My conscience is clean, man." "I won't run away, because if I do... then they'll think I was really involved"." "I'm like, "I'll stay, because if I stay... at least I'll prove that my conscience is clean." "I'll stay here and I'll tell them that I wasn't there." "If I run away, I'll only hurt myself." "I'm not guilty, I'm not afraid." "I won't leave"." "I was going there... to die with the other guys." "I was like, "We're all gonna die together"." "Because I could not go on living if anything happened to them." "They were Anderson, Altair, Vítor, Dada..." "Sandro, Leandro and Samuel." "And something that really struck me..." "You know what they did?" "They let the phone off the hook so I could hear everything." "I was stuck in a traffic jam." "I got even more nervous." "That was bound to happen, man." "If we didn't have... the courage of telling them, "We're neutral... we're not with Comando Vermelho or Terceiro Comando... we just wanna talk"..." "actually, not talk... we argued with them, we were screaming... because it was an ugly argument." "When I got there, the chaos was already over... and they were laughing a lot." "I think they kept a cool head... especially the drug dealers who came to talk to us... because they were always saying..." ""This is interesting, you're still here, you didn't run away... you didn't leave." "If you did, we'd think... that you were really up to something"." "And if the residents had their way... we'd have been lynched, we'd have been stoned to death... because they wanted to beat us up, no questions asked... just torture us." "But they were like..." ""Hold on, let 's hear what they have to say"." "That was a difficult day." "We didn't create our name, so it would have a meaning... but our ideology is a very hungry thing." "It won't let us rest, it won't let us hold our peace... because we're living a war situation here." "And our way of soothing... our afflictions a little is getting into combat." "So, to get to the peace we need... which is not only ours, we need to be in a state of war all the time." "Because I know I heard someone say" "Justice will be done anyway" "It is late in coming, but it'll come" "And all of you know that" "And through music and culture" "Here's another movement" "Fighting in the name of peace" "Vigário Geral, today... if we were to compare it with the past... it has less people suffering, less deaths... it has more jobs, more joy... more happiness, and the most important thing:" "It has more hope." "Anderson, in the community... he has many more followers now." "Did you get a drum?" "Everyone wants to follow Anderson's steps... because many people want to listen to what he has to say... because it 's really nice when you see... a black man with responsibility, a black man who is really a man... because that 's very hard to find." "Some drug dealers came here... and I don't like to serve those kinda people... unless they buy takeout food." "The tables were set and they said, "We wanna have lunch"." "And I said, "I'm sorry"." "AfroReggae helps me in that way too..." "I have a deal with AfroReggae... with the hospital and Mogec, it 's all nearby." "And the tables were set for those people." ""So you won't serve us?"" "I said, "Look, son, I'm not saying I won't serve you..." "I'm saying I can't serve you." "If you want, I can fix takeout food for you." "But I can't serve you here"." "...the parents... who would like to do something to do with culture... something to do with education... so we won't have young people influenced by criminals." "Sometimes people talk about Vila Cruzeiro... because of the violence, the problems they had... but we know that Vila Cruzeiro is full of upstanding citizens... who want to live in peace, people who are working..." "and enough already of this side A, side B thing..." "Comando This, Comando That." "We're all black people from the favelas, right?" "That 's it." "I was exactly here, in this office... and Dada, the singer in another one of our bands, Makala... called and said, "Look... they're saying Anderson had an accident"." "And I'm like, "What?"" ""He was catching waves and he hit his head on a stone."" "He had a fall, he was knocked out... and he couldn't breathe, the waves took him away." "Then a friend of his got close to the water... they fished him out and they called the paramedics... and they took him to Miguel Couto." "Then they put me in a car and they took me to Souza Aguiar." "When I got there, there was this crowd down there... and I said, "That 's it." "My son is dead and you don't want to tell me"." "He broke his spine, he broke the fourth cervical vertebra." "He was immediately paralyzed from the neck down." "Those are very serious lesions... and the neurological conditions are seldom reversible." "Then I said, "Sister, tell him we don't have any money now... but we'll manage, I'll pay whatever it 's necessary... so that Anderson won't be paralyzed." "There's no price tag on that." "For himself, for the group, for all of us..." "I need that boy up on his feet again"." "Then Dr. Paulo Niemeyer called me... and he knew what AfroReggae was, what Anderson represented." "I said to him, "Doctor..."" "Then he told me, "Don't worry about the money..." "I won't charge you anything"." "If you can pay, you pay." "If you can't pay, you don't." "That 's our policy here, mine and everyone else's." "I've learned that from my father." "We have to help everyone, and some pay for the others." "Then Dr. Paulo Niemeyer, who's a neurosurgeon... who's been working on cases like this for years... and is the top man in this area in Brazil... said he could count on his fingers the ones who got back on their feet." "I still don't know if that was bound to happen." "I've always been afraid... that something could happen, especially something like this... me not being able to walk." "Not being able to move." "I've always been afraid I'd become paralyzed." "And he said that, if he wasn't gonna be able to walk... that he'd rather die." "That he wouldn't want to stay." "He'd ask the doctor for some..." "He'd rather die, because that would be easier." "You know, we were also in a difficult situation." "Should we stop?" "Shouldn't we?" "Should we keep going?" "Because Anderson was the face of the organization... he was the face of the band too." "How would we manage with him?" "Without him?" "Everyone who heard the news became very desperate... and we cried a lot, it was... total panic." "Children told me they were praying for him." "And you saw that it was true." "Prayers are priceless." "Visiting hours were over, so I went away, turned around... came down and snuck past security, me and Dada... so we went back in again." "And he was crying, he opened up with us." "He said, "It 's fucked up, man." "There are things in life we take so much for granted... like a simple movement"." "And we were like..." "I tried to be strong for him... so he wouldn't get even more depressed." "And then, while we were talking... something crazy happened:" "A lady came by and I was talking to him..." "I looked at the door, and the lady walked right towards him." "She came from the hall towards him." "Then the lady stopped at the foot of the bed... we stopped talking, I looked at her... and she said, "Look, I don't know him, I don't know who he is... but God asked me to come here and talk to him." "This God who's talking to you, who asked me to talk to you... is the God who moves the sea"." "That 's what she said." "He who moves mountains." "When she said "who moves the sea"..." "I got goosebumps all over." "Then she said..." "That woman started to spread... a very good vibe... a really nice vibe, we were all excited... him too, and she was saying, she was praying... and she ended up by saying..." ""God will give you your victory sooner than you think"." "When he was..." "When he asked me... he asked his mom, "Where's my shirt?" "Let 's put my shirt on and let 's go home"." "He didn't have a shirt, so his mother brought the shirt." "She took the shirt from her purse and she smelled it." " Can I pull hard?" " Yes, you can." "Do you want the wheelchair or you'd rather walk?" "Maybe the wheelchair." "Could be in the wheelchair, whatever." "You decide." "If you wanna walk, then walk." "Wouldn't you rather walk, show off a little?" "You wanna show you're the miracle man?" "I remember the patients I've seen who came here paralyzed... and recovered." "I think he has to thank heavens every day." "The second day after the surgery... the doctor got me up, he sat me up straight... and he asked me if I felt like standing up." "When he said that, I thought he was joking... just to cheer me up." "But he was like, "No, let 's go, let 's go!"" "And he himself was really confident." "I started to try and get my head and my chest up." "I wanted to sit up straight, then I managed to do it... and I was really happy." "That was really a trial." "And that 's adding more and more to our work... giving continuity to everything AfroReggae invested in us." "But I had to be strong for him, I had to give him strength." "Then I made a deal with him, I said..." ""Look, every day will be just like the 0lympics." "Every day you'll have to break a record." "Every day you'll have to break a record." "You'll have to move more, increase your movements... you'll have to have more disposition"." "And that was kind of a deal between us, in that sense." "When you swim... everything turns, everything..." "The way you sleep... the movements of your hand, you know... everything's difficult, painful." "I was really a warrior." "After all that happened... to be there again, doing the same things..." "We have this whole karmic process... that makes us create an action... that won't end with me, it won't end with Anderson:" "It 'll pass on from generation to generation." "It 'll be endless." "This thing I was so afraid of, you know?" "Becoming paralyzed, not being able to move... having no mobility at all..." "I think that favelas were a little like that... they didn't have..." "they couldn't move... they stood there, still, paralyzed... with their spine severed, you know?" "Always like that." "I think the mobilization thing, today... communities are beginning to move... in a positive way, you know?" "They're beginning to show they exist, that we are here... walking, that we're able to raise our hands... that we're able to raise our heads an get back to work." "You see, Richard Murilo?"