While Hollywood can sometimes over-exaggerate movies, the Boston University Brazilian Association showed last night at the Howard Thurman Center that sometimes film depictions are strikingly accurate.
The association hosted a showing of the film screening and discussion on City of God, a film interpretation of true events in the city of Rio de Janeiro, the former capital of Brazil.
“This movie depicts well the social-economic reality of Brazil,” said BUBA Treasurer Eduardo Bezerra, a School of Management junior.
The film presents a sobering story of a group of youths in Rio de Janeiro from the early 1960s to the late 1970s. As living conditions within their neighborhood — named “The City of God” — turn from bad to worse, young people turn to crime to escape the rampant poverty.
Nearly 30 people turned out for the film screening, which began with an introduction by College of Arts and Sciences economics professor Regina Cati.
“[The high crime rate] is a social problem,” she said before the film started. “[The poor] see the rich people on the beaches, and they want that too. You have the very rich and the very poor living together. The City of God was a rearrangement of these people.”
Unfortunately, the crime in Rio de Janeiro continues today, BUBA members said, and many events in City of God are similar to reality.
An estimated 100,000 people work in the trade of illegal drugs in the city, a number which matches the amount of people employed by the state government. Each year an average of 5,000 to 7,500 people under 25 are killed by gunfire.
The film attracted Brazilian natives and other interested observers.
“I had seen [the film] a few years ago and I enjoyed it, so I thought I’d see it en masse,” said University Professors Program graduate student Evan Overton. “Brazil is a really interesting country.”
BUBA President Carolina Teixeira, an SMG and CAS junior, said although it is hard to spread the word about events, she was impressed by the turnout.
“The turnout was surprising,” Bezerra said. “[BUBA] had an event recently that was disappointing. It was good to see everyone here.”