One Man, One City, Three Evictions: The Human Cost of Rio’s Growth
PBS, USA, Thomson Reuters Foundation 2017
Selected to Social Political Film Festival 2017
More than a quarter of Rio's 6 million-strong population live in 1000 informal settlements known as ‘Favelas’. Many live under a constant threat of eviction and removal, but 61-year-old Altair Guimarães may be unusual: he has been evicted three times in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. ‘One Man, One City, Three Evictions’ tells his personal story.
Guimarães's life illustrates how re-development, property speculation and gentrification of Brazil's second-biggest city has pushed many of its poorest residents to the edges, a pattern seen globally.
His idyllic childhood in a favela on the edge of Freitas Lagoon came to an end when he was 14 and he was moved to the notorious, violent 'City Of God'. Evicted again as an adult, he found a home in the peaceful community of Vila Autódromo. The Rio Olympics then provided the impetus for this community to be evicted.
This eviction was the final bitter chapter in a life-long quest to put down roots in the city of his birth.
Life has turned Guimarães into a fighter. Today he supports others who, themselves are under threat of eviction.