Carla Osorio, producer of City of God-Ten Years Later poses with a friend, Yaw F.L. Davis, Founding Director of the Pan African Technical Association. | Tiffany Walton
Rio de Janeiro has always made a splash as a travel destination, but when the 2002 feature film City of God made its way onto the big screens in Brazil and internationally, the world saw a different perspective of this tropical locale.
Movies with predominately Black casts were rarely seen. And the drug crime and violence taking place in Rio’s slums, or favelas, were elements that tourists often had no idea existed.
Meanwhile, Black Brazilian film actors were facing similar challenges to Black actors in the United States, such as a lack of roles and visibility. City of God provided a space for Black Brazilian actors, many of them from Rio’s favelas, to showcase their talents and served as a beacon for other movies to open the doors to Black actors.
But what happened to them?
The documentary City of God-10 Years Later focuses on the current lives of those actors who appeared in the original film. It’s one of the films featured at this year’s Pan African Film Festival, running Feb. 5 – 16 at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza in South L.A.
The film’s producer, Carla Osorio, spoke with Intersections about the importance of City of God-10 Years Later, touching on the relationship between art and life.
Click play to hear her comments:
The film will screen Feb. 8 and Feb. 13. Watch the trailer below:
This year’s Pan African Film Festival will feature more than 150 films representing almost four dozen countries. The event is considered America’s largest and most prestigious Black arts and film festival. Its films are made by and/or about people of African descent from the United States, Africa, the Caribbean, South America, the South Pacific, Europe and Canada. PAFF also holds the distinction of being the largest Black History Month event in the country.
For more information, including how to purchase tickets, visit the festival’s official website at www.paff.org.
Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza
3650 W Martin Luther King Jr, Los Angeles, CA
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