Agora meu nome e Ze Pequeno, porra!*

I met this Brazilian photographer who goes by the singular name of Cale at a party a couple of weeks ago. I finally got around to looking at his web site, and his photos of Cidade de Deus (as well as his portraits of soap opera stars) are well done. He also has a little summary of MV Bill's spat with the directors of City of God, one that Katia Lund said was more motivated by Bill being a little cranky that he wasn't cast in the role of Ze Pequeno. It really doesn't matter though because it seems like his publicity brought attention to the real issue at hand, which is that even though the film was so successful worldwide Cidade de Deus is still lacking the infrastructure (plumbing, electricity, clean water) that even a favela like Rocinha has more of. Not to mention that a part of the development was built on a swamp and the foundation is slowly sinking. And that's not even bringing the Comando Vermelho into the picture.
To read more and look at photos of Mel Lisboa go here. There's a nice photo of Bill (who still has my copy of Ready To Die) with Fernanda Abreu who unfortunately isn't wearing the outfit of buckles she had on at her concert.

*I don't know how to type accent marks on Blogger. Apologies to proofreaders.