Ten years ago Brazilian authorities began evicting favela residents from their homes in preparation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. At best, they prioritised the whims of a one-off sporting mega-event over the lives of poor people. At worst, it was social cleansing.
Entire communities were flattened, often with very little warning, and sometimes even without a clear plan. In one case a row of favela dwellings were torn down so a hedge could be planted alongside a main road, to shield the rest of the favela from the view of passing cars. Just in case visitors mentioned poverty in their postcards home.
One favela community - a little too close to the party for comfort - was particularly hard hit by this wave of destruction. Almost 700 families living a stone's throw from Rio's iconic Maracanã Stadium felt the full impact of Brazil's shameful forced evictions.
I shot this footage in 2014 in a very noisy (!) corner of Rio de Janeiro, as part of a series of vlogs about the World Cup. Six years after the World Cup kicked off, this is the full story of Favela do Metro:
No comments:
Post a Comment