Yesterday’s Globo had an excellent interview with veteran film director Cacá Diegues, who engendered the new five-film collection 5xFavela, written, directed and shot by young favela residents. Here’s the link:

http://oglobo.globo.com/blogs/arnaldo/posts/2010/08/27/caca-diegues-brasil-vive-uma-idade-de-ouro-319735.asp

Here are the best parts, in English:

“It’s not true that [the favelas] are pacified..What they’re doing is to empty out militarized spaces, end criminal social control.”

“Can you imagine the pacification of the Maré [Complexo do Maré, where most of the drug traffickers exiled by the pacification process have moved]? There’ll be blood, lots of violence, lots of death. And even when a favela is liberated, what are you going to do with the little boys, the messengers, the little soldiers, the runners, the little shits — the type of people who make up the so-called army of 400 in São Conrado [referring to the army of Nem, the drug trafficker of Rocinha and Vidigal slums, 60-90 of whose men let loose in São Conrado last Saturday]? Where are the jobs? And the commerce that revolves around the drugs? The corner bar, the take-out food, what are you going to do with these people? If there’s no jobs or income, they’re going to rob and steal. No one dies of hunger without doing something first. But giving jobs and income implies amnesty. Who will get it? Only those who haven’t killed? But they’re criminals. What is the legal instrument for this? If we don’t have a minimum of patience and goodwill… At least ten years. We let this happen in a very deep way in Rio. A process that has lasted over a century. And people get impatient, they complain. What do they want? To throw bombs on the favelas? Hold a free Fla-Flu game, lock everybody in and turn on the gas?”

I saw the five short films he’s just launched, in a preview a couple of weeks ago. They’re stupendous; see them.