Documentary review A Bit of Heart Behind the Headlines
Y
outh-led mobilizations have picked up steam across Latin America over the past several years - from the latest student
movement that started in Chile in 2011, the YoSoy132 protests in Mexico in 2012, and the mass demonstrations across Brazil in June, 2013. Such public actions, often initiated by youth using social media on an unprecedented level and mobilizing support from around the world, reinforce the power of youth and their work. They also showed the world that in addition to raising awareness, real change can be made. In Brazil, for instance, after weeks of intense protest, President Dilma Rousseff agreed to a number of policy changes, including a reduction of public transportation costs. In Chile, four student leaders were elected to Congress during the recent 2013 national election, a major win for the movement there. Such examples are inspiring. But what about the voices of those in the region who, often due to socioeconomic inequality, are left without a platform and without the tools to articulate themselves?
It is some of those voices that Brazilian filmmaker Thereza Jessouroun tries to amplify in her documentary, When Home Is The Street (Quando a Casa é a Rua), released in 2013. She takes us to the streets of urban Mexico and Brazil, where young people are caught in a spiral of domestic violence, homelessness, crime and addiction. The film’s structure is simple and to-the-point, with a window into the lives and minds of a few street kids who, like other youth around the world, simply want stability, love and respect. We meet Javier who, from the age of 13, was in and out of detention centres, living on the street and abusing drugs. Only a few years later, he lays out his story; articulate, emotional, raw.
The concept is in the same spirit of the powerful documentary film Bus174, also from Brazil, which was released over a decade ago but continues to be relevant. It tells the story of a young man who holds passengers on a bus hostage for several hours and while the drama of the hostage-taking unfolds, the filmmakers take the audience through the life of this boy and other street kids like him, highlighting the complex factors that contributed to bringing him to that very crucial moment. Similarly, When Home Is The Street does not attempt to necessarily justify the actions of these young people, but it brings much needed understanding, context and heart that is often left out from news headlines and statistics.
The film is also released at a time when young people in Mexico and Brazil are facing particular challenges. Certainly, there is much to celebrate in the region, including the successes from recent
by Eva Salinas
Film stills of “When Home is the Street” courtesy of Fetzer Institute.
student movements, and an increase in entrepreneurial programs for youth, for instance, but there also continues to be a growing number of “ninis” - young people neither working nor studying. This is particularly worrying in northern Mexico, where drug- related crime and violence hit youth harder than most. Inequality and discontentment have been highlighted recently in Brazil, as the country plays host to a number of international events starting in 2014. Though these regional issues make this documentary particularly pertinent, youth homelessness is certainly a worthy and unsung issue worldwide. A bit of heart, and voice, to the subject is always welcome.
Other documentaries worth checking out are William and the Windmill, about a young Malawian man who builds a windmill from scraps; Resistencia: Hip-Hop in Colombia, which intersects music, young people and Colombia’s 40-year civil war; and Girl Model, the story of young women in Siberia hoping to escape poverty by entering the exploitative world of modelling.
iAM March 2014
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