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Published: July 17th 2008
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Projeto Morrinho Today the “Tour of Justice” continues with a visit to
Projeto Morrinho . Projeto Morrinho is located in the favela Vila Pereira da Silva, close to the neighborhood Laranjeiras, where coincidentally the seat of CDI is also located. (Note: I’ll be coming back to CDI this afternoon to meet with Rodrigo Baggio - stay tuned!) My friend Carlos co-owns a bed and breakfast network in Santa Teresa called Cama e Café with his friend João, and between the two of them they know everybody in town. So, Carlos agreed to take Laura and me up Projeto Morrinho. The project is already famous and has been featured in top international art festivals in Venice, Berlin, Munich and Prague, among others. And they are accustomed to receiving tourists. However, coming with Carlos was really cool because he knows the founders and it was a more personalized experience than going with a tour group.
So, Projeto Morrinho was started 11 years ago by two brothers, Cirlan and Maycon (Cilan met with us). They started playing around in the backyard of their house, a steep hillside well-hidden by the jungle and relatively difficult to get to. Using bricks, Legos, cement and other found
objects, they created a little replica of the favela and acted out scenes from their daily lives. Soon other kids started to find out about it and asked if they could come play. But the boys wanted to keep it hidden, partly to protect it from anyone destroying it, because at that time the area was dominated by one of the drug trafficking groups.
Eventually word got out and the boys had to let other kids play. In 2001 the project was visited by two well-known documentary filmmakers, Fabio Gavião and Markão Oliveira. The filmmakers were so taken with their work that they developed a documentary about the project. By this time the group was comprised of eight boys in their mid-teens. Out of the documentary grew a partnership that helped Projeto Morrinho become a registered NGO and opened doors to the wider world of arts and social projects. They also have a
YouTube Channel where they produce short films!
More press about Projeto Morrinho, in English:
World Changing Brazil: Modelling Change in the Favelas Vernissage TV Venice Biennale Stories
Cilan was telling us about how both the drug traffickers and the police encouraged their work with Projeto Morrinho. Cilan and his brother were in their
mid-teens and wanted to hide their project partly because of fear of seeming “not cool.” But the traficantes, guys in their mid-twenties and the most respected in the community, thought the project was incredibly cool and supported it wholeheartedly. They encouraged the boys, saying that their (the traficantes’) lives were already passed, in the sense that they were too old to go back to school, have other choices, be creative. On the other hand the boys were still young, could stay in school, use this project to bring about other opportunities, to engage other kids in the community so they didn’t get sucked into trafficking. They even came by and played around from time to time, as Cilan said, “powerful guys with guns slung over their shoulders messing around with our toys like little kids. We felt so cool!”
I found this really surprising as the common image of traficantes is that they seek out young blood to keep things moving, so they can manipulate kids into working for them as disposable soldiers. But Cilan said that they left the Morrinho alone and even protected it during times of fighting. Sometimes when gunshots would break out all the kids
would run up to the little clubhouse by the project, and they would be safe there until fighting stopped. Moms would call one of the boys’ cells phones to find out who all was around. These days, the traficantes are pretty much gone from the area, so it is much safer, but Morrinho is still a haven for the new generation of kids.
Similarly, on the other side of the law, the police had a mixed relationship with Morrinho. On the one hand, the local commander whose guys patrolled the area though the project was a great way to keep the kids occupied and out of trouble. The cops didn’t really go over there very often because access is difficult and it didn’t seem that anything amiss was going down. A few times, though, I think a regional commander or someone higher up prohibited the kids from working on the project because they thought it was a strategic planning ground for the traficantes, a place to plan operations and invasions of other favelas. Only when the traficantes and the local commander came to the kids’ defense, and when the higher-up actually came and saw what the project was all
about, did they “liberate” the area and leave the kids alone. The police even complimented the kids on what they were doing and developed a relationship with them.
Fast-forward: Now, Cilan, his brother, and the whole generation of Morrinho boys are in their mid-twenties, highly respected in the community, Rio and the world. They are role models for the boys in the neighborhood and a new generation of teenagers has emerged as contributors to Projeto Morrinho.
There are rules that govern “play” in Morrinho, but the rules are fungible, in the sense that negotiation, debate and conversation result in constantly changing but respected rules. Each person involved has their own section of the Morrinho for which they are responsible; they can change, paint, build and act out stories as they see fit. To mess with anyone else’s property is a serious offense and basically results in expulsion from the imaginary (and real) community. However if you come to an agreement with someone about a “joint venture” between the two properties, whatever you decide is your business. Also, if you are acting out a scenario, your person or car or whatever has to actually locomote through the mini-favela; you
can’t pick up your guys and make them fly to the top of the hill. “The basis of all the rules is reality: nothing can happen here that couldn’t happen in real life. Maybe things happen here that will never happen, but reality is the law that governs the imaginary,” as Cilan explained.
The imaginary world of Morrinho also translates into real life lessons. In a very concrete way (no pun intended), if the bricks used for buildings are not properly supported on the hillside, when it rains, the whole set-up collapses. So concrete and other materials have to be used to build a stable foundation. Same with the houses in the favela. I don’t know the living situation of each kid, so perhaps everyone’s houses are stable and secure in their construction. Given that this is a relatively small community, that may be the case. But it is a lesson to learn and a very important one, given that mudslides and house collapses are a serious problem in most of the favelas, especially in the newer constructions and the more crowded ones.
So Projeto Morrinho is, in a word, awe-inspiring (ok, that’s two words) both in its
physical intricacy and its social impact. A group of teenage boys, acting against the odds, taking charge of their own lives and becoming role models for other, transporting their “child’s play” (in their words) to the world and opening up their reality to outsiders, and - in keeping with the theme - promoting entrepreneurship and agency among their peers.
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Shirley
non-member comment
inspirational
Of all the projects you've investigated, this is the most remarkable. What endurance the human spirit has. What lessons we can all take away from these children. Talk about building your life....