Rio de Janeiro Director's Blog

By Chris Mansson, Director

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10 a.m.

Breakfast at my hotel on Ipanema Beach. In an hour I'm meeting up with Seu Jorge: singer, actor and, from what I've heard, a dude. I know him from the film "City of God" where he played "Knockout Ned," the bus conductor turned violent gang boss.

11 a.m.

Seu Jorge comes out of the hotel, strolls towards us flicks back his dreads and cracks a big smile, he's wearing a red t-shirt with Afrika Bambaataa printed on the front and he's definitely a dude. We jump into the car and he tells the driver to head for Central Station. On the way there he tells me that he wants to show us, the places where the real people of Rio live. By "real people" he means the people from the favelas, the impoverished shanty towns that are home to most of the city's poor.

Midday

As we get to Central Station Seu Jorge jumps out and immediately starts walking and talking, he talks a lot about the hardships the people face, how they spend hours on buses or walking to come here for work, to sell their goods, then without warning he says, "This is where my brother was murdered." I'm stunned -- what the hell do you say in response to that? But Seu Jorge has moved on talking about something different altogether. He later tells me that his brother's murder was a big turning point in his life. He ended up living on the streets of Rio for three years. Full of anger, all he could think of was revenge but a friend of his helped him to turn his anger around and focus on music. He learned to play the guitar and started performing. One thing lead to another and now, years later, he is a massive music star and a celebrated actor.

1 p.m.

We hit downtown Rio. Seu Jorge eats ice cream, signs autographs, chats to people. He gets recognized everywhere, people shout his name from shops, bus windows, street corners you name it, the cool thing is that he's makes time for everyone, they are "his" people, and he is their hero, he is their voice. His lyrics are about injustice about struggle, he tells me that this is the responsibility of musicians today, to highlight these injustices.

2 p.m.

We walk past a music shops selling instruments. The second he walks in, the shop attendants start playing samba and Seu Jorge joins in and gives us an impromptu performance, he moves on, past a porn cinema ("I used to go there as a kid," he says), past a German restaurant ("great beer, very cheap" -- we are desperately trying to keep up with him).

3 p.m.

Back in the car, he tells the driver to take us to Santa Teresa, a favela in downtown Rio. He wants to show us a music school run by a friend of his. As we pull up at the bottom of the favela he suddenly gets a bit nervous. He turns to Darren, my cameraman, and says, "Don't show the camera, keep it in the bag, we must wait for my friend." I realize that entering a favela in Rio is something that shouldn't be taken lightly. The drug dealers run the streets here and you definently don't want to show up uninvited. The friend arrives and escorts us in. Scenes from "City of God" enter my mind, and I remind Darren to keep the camera in the bag. We get to the school and Seu Jorge picks up a guitar and starts jamming with the kids. It's truly amazing, one of those moments in life when time seems to stand still. He poses with the kids outside the school, he looks at the camera and says: "This is The Scene in Rio de Janeiro."

4 p.m.

Seu Jorge wants to take us to another favela to meet some of his fellow actors from "City of God," who now run an acting academy. The favela is called Vidigal. When my Brazilian producer Bia hears this she looks at me and says, "That is one of the most dangerous favelas in Rio." I think, what do we do now? Darren asks Seu Jorge if it's safe for us to go there. "No problem," is the answer. "My friend knows everybody there, you will be safe." OK, off we go then...

5 p.m.

When we arrive at Vidigal, two police cars are parked at the entrance. One has a bullet hole in the windscreen. We will be safe I keep telling myself. Same story: again we wait for Seu Jorge's friend to show up, and when he does we drive up into the favela. The atmosphere is tense, but as we enter the acting academy and walk out on the balcony, the view blows us away. Behind us the favela clings onto the mountain, in front of us is Ipanema beach and the sea. Seu Jorge says, "These are the two sides of Rio, I prefer this one."

Midnight

We hit the Lapa district with Seu Jorge to check out the music scene. You'll have to check out the film to find out what we got up to...

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