The Project 5X Favela [5 Times Favela], which aims to teach young people from the favelas (slums) of Rio de Janeiro how to work in the movie business, presented its first feature film, “5X Favela: Now by ourselves” at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival on 18th May. The film shows five shorts of 20 minutes [pt], each made by different students from the several film workshops from the Project 5X Favela performed by renowned Brazilian filmmakers such as Nelson Pereira dos Santos [pt], Ruy Guerra, Walter Lima Jr., Daniel Filho [pt], Walter Salles, Fernando Meirelles, João Moreira Salles and others. “5X Favela: Now by ourserves” reflects the voice and point of view of the youth living (and growing up) in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. It is hard not to be charmed by a social and cultural project of this size [pt], which intends not only to inform both Brazilian and international population about the lives of slum-dwellers, but also to professionalize and provide opportunities for talented young people who bring new ideas to Brazilian cinema. Participants of the film production went through a long and arduous apprenticeship until the final selection for the project. 229 young people attended various workshops such as screenplay writing, direction, production, photography, art, editing, post-production, and interpretation. They had also received an allowance to make it possible to attend classes. From these workshops, 84 young people were chosen to join the film crew, which resulted in “5X Favela: Now by ourselves”. During production (Photo Courtesy of the Film Production) The workshops were developed in partnership with organizations and communities of the favelas (slums) and the CUFA [pt] [Favela's Central Unit) in Cidade de Deus[City of God], the Nós do Morro (in Vidigal), the Observatorio de Favelas [Favela Observatory] (in the Maré Complex), the AfroReggae [pt] (in Parada de Lucas ) and the Cidadela/Cinemaneiro [pt] (headquartered in Lapa neighborhood, bringing together people from various communities of the Linha Amarela Highway) [pt]. Published in the project blog, Professor Ruy Guerra, the group's patron, gave an emotional statement at the end of the workshops: Para ser bem sucedido em qualquer forma de expressão artística, como no cinema, não basta a sensibilidade, a intuição e o talento. É preciso ser do seu tempo. É preciso saber de onde viemos, para saber quem somos, para falar do presente, do passado, e até do futuro, que é também um território da arte. É indispensável termos a consciência clara que nunca estamos prontos, que devemos estar sempre de olhos abertos, bem abertos, vendo, lendo, questionando, vivendo. (…)Antes queria que soubessem por que é que este momento é tão especial para mim. Por que este encontro, além de um ato festivo, além de um ritual de passagem, é também um gesto político importante. Este encontro, no qual todos nós somos atores, faz parte do sentimento político que os fazedores de cinema, (e aqui uso o termo cinema no sentido amplo de todas as formas de expressão que usam as imagens em movimento), podem e devem vir de todas as camadas sociais de uma nação, e não apenas de minorias previlegiadas. E que o cinema, como objeto, como filme, pode e deve estar ao alcance de qualquer um. Todos aqui, estou certo disso, estamos habitados por essa convicção. To be successful in any form of artistic expression, like in the movies, sensitivity, intuition and talent are not enough. You have to be someone from your own time. You must know where we come from to know who we are to talk about the present, past, and even about the future, which is also a territory of art. It is vital to have a clear awareness that we are never ready, that we should always have our eyes wide open, watching, reading, questioning and living. (…) First, I wanted you to know why this moment is so special to me. Why this meeting, along with a festive act, besides being a rite of passage, is also an important political gesture. This meeting, in which we are all actors, is part of the political feeling that the cinema-makers, (and here I use the term cinema in the broad sense of all forms of expression that use moving images), can and should come from all social layers of a nation, not just privileged minority also, the cinema as an object, such as film, can and should be accessible to anyone. Everyone here, I am sure, is inhabited by this conviction. A few weeks ago, Rodrigo Felha, one of the directors of the film, reported in his blog the joy and anxiety about the chance of the film being shown at Cannes: “Quinta-feira dia 15 de Abril é quebrada a ansiedade de saber se estamos no Festival de Cannes. É verdade, é histórico… das favelas cariocas pra Cannes, uma responsabilidade muito grande, do jeito que gosto.