Rio Breaks tells the story of two best friends, Fabio and Naama, as they navigate their way between life in the slums and surfing on their favorite beach. Thirteen-year-old Fabio and twelve-year-old Naama live in a huge favela near Arpoador Beach, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. What will happen to these best friends? Will their friendship survive the pressures of life in the favela? Can surfing offer a way out and the possibility of a better life?
This is the story of Rio Breaks.
Documentary: "Rio Breaks"
Hanging ten in a favela
Oct 3rd 2011, 7:18 by G.G.
“RIO BREAKS” is a documentary that explores two unlikely worlds: surfing and slum-life in Rio de Janeiro. Neither “Blue Crush” nor “City of God”, but a charming tale of two boys on the cusp of adolescence that refreshingly debunks any related stereotypes.
The film follows a year in the lives of two best friends, Fabio and Naama. They live in “Vietnam”, a particularly violent part of one of Rio's largest slums, riddled with poverty and controlled by the armed drug-gangs of the Red Command. Naama (pictured below) is 12, button-nosed, bright and cheeky. Fabio is a year older, brash and complex. His mother is on the streets; his father was murdered when he tried to leave his gang. For the two young boys there isn’t much to do besides play marbles on concrete, fly kites, catch mice or worse.
So every morning they burn down the hill to Arpoador beach, where they kick sand, angle to borrow a board and dream of becoming professional surfers. They are encouraged by Rogerio, who also grew up in the favela but has made a career out of surfing. He opened the Favela Surf Club, a non-profit organisation that offers guidance and boards to the favela kids in an effort to deter violence. Rogerio offers a rare alternative to the spiral of gang life: the salvation of surfing.
Justin Mitchell, the film’s writer and director, followed the boys for over a year from their cramped homes to surf competitions. He does not speak Portuguese, so his approach was to let the boys talk, only translating and editing them later on. The result is an uninhibited, frank and conversational narrative. The boys’ gabbing and giggling is a pleasant contrast to the lazy lilting narration of Bodie Olmos, an American actor and sometime-surfer.
The third star of the film is Rio itself, with its irresistible, inimitable flavour. On the beach the dazzling sun hits tanned bodies, puff-clouds hang over the sea, surfers zig-zag frantically in the waves and ladies lounge in tiny bikinis. All the while, a samba soundtrack plays a relentlessly happy beat.
The film-makers deliberately avoid the well-worn tropes of drugs and violence. Instead it’s a film about friendship, hope and goodness in adversity. But what holds your attention is the ebb and flow of the boys’ friendship, which begins to fray when Fabio is drawn back to the gangs. Mr Mitchell skilfully handles the uncertainty and fragility of their lives, leaving unanswered the question of where they’ll end up.
“Rio Breaks” has travelled to a number of film festivals, and had an acclaimed British release in June. After Luciano Huck, a Brazilian chat-show host, saw the film he took his camera crew into the favela to meet the boys. Fabio was difficult to track down, but they found Naama and surprised him with a trip to Hawaii to meet Kelly Slater, a world-champion surfer, on the condition he stayed at school, avoided the gangs and learnt English. His family was also moved to an apartment in Copacabana. Good fortune can come in waves.
“Rio Breaks” is released on DVD in Britain on October 3rd and is currently available on DVD in America
