Movie: City of God
Come for a pre showing dinner and a post showing discussion along with a great film!
Taking place over the course of a few decades, City of God tells the story of two parallel lives from the favela Cidade de Deus (Portuguese for City of God) in Brazil. Rocket (whose real name is revealed to be Wilson Rodrigues) comes from a fishmonger's home, where his family sold fish in the favela, while Li'l Dice grows up in a gang of hoodlums who kill and steal. The film begins close to the end of the story and moves back two decades, and has other flashbacks along the way back to the end.
While both Rocket and Li'l Dice grow up amidst much violence and despair, each takes a different path. As the years progress, the characters go through a series of changes. Li'l Dice changes his name to Li'l Zé, becomes one of the most violent gangsters in the City of God as he starts up his own gang, kills many rivals, and makes many enemies. Rocket witnesses much of this, as he develops an interest in photography and wishes to use it to escape the violence of the favelas.
Their paths cross at many points in the film: Rocket's older brother is murdered by Li'l Zé when they are just children; a mutual friend of Rocket and Li'l Zé is murdered as he attempts to leave the gangster life; Rocket's photos attract Li'l Zé's attention and Rocket is hired to be his photographer and his pictures are published in the newspaper; and Rocket is there to document the inevitable gang war that erupts between Li'l Zé and his rivals.
Sponsor: ALANAI Honor Society, CCEBMS, CSD, OPSAS and Malcolm X Cultural Center