Year 13 Film - FS5 City of God /'Cidade de Deus' Case-study Resources

Hi everyone. I hope you are having a fabulous holiday and making the most of the sunshine. I wanted to thank all of you for your hard work this term. Last week was so busy with deadlines but you rose to the challenge and worked hard to bring all of your creative ambitions to life. There are some amazing short films and I was thrilled that some Year 12 Media students branched out into the world of 'Podcasting' for Media evaluations. Brilliant. 

For all of my lovely Year 13 Film students, I am delighted that you enjoyed the three gendered films. I am looking forward to your 'debate' essays after Easter, and to finishing our analysis of these important texts. I will post more goodies to support your studies here, but in the meantime, I have started to explore and post goodies to get you thinking about Brazillian Cinema and 'City of God' by Fernando Meirelles, the final film to be studied as part of the FS5 unit to complement your work on French New Wave. This is a close-study film and we will be looking at it from macro and micro perspectives. To get the ball rolling, here is some stuff to get you thinking about Brazil - What type of country is Brazil? What is it's demographic? What is it famous for? What do you know about it's past? What is the capital of Brazil?

Have a look at these two adverts. What messages and values about Brazil do they sell?

Brazillian Tourist Board Advert

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VIYWg8qCzI

City of God- Opening Sequence

What 'essence' of Brazil is communicated in this sequence? How does it compare/contrast to the TV adverts? Who is represented? How are they represented? Why are they represented in this light? What portrait of brazil is painted by this sequence?

Here is an exemplar essay from the exam board to show you the type of question and style of question you may be asked:

Exemplar Essay:

http://www.routledge.com/textbooks/0415371430/pdfs/city_god.pdf

Here are some useful articles and interviews to support your study of the film:

An interview with the director:

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/features/fernandomeirelles.asp

Kids and Carnage - Article about 'City of God'
http://www.cinescene.com/howard/carnage.htm

Film Reviews

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2002/dec/08/features.review1

http://www.identitytheory.com/film/ryan_cityofgod.php

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/cityofgod

http://www.moviemaker.com/directing/article/fernando_mereilles_3284/

http://www.metacritic.com/video/titles/cityofgod

Wider Issues related to the film and it's representation of Rio:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6182752.stm

http://www.metamute.org/en/Slumsploitation-Favela-on-Film-and-TV

The Official Film Website:

http://cidadededeus.globo.com/