City of God, City of Barriers
City of God, City of Barriers
AQ takes a tour of Rio de Janiero’s Vidigal favela with local filmmaker Cavi Borges. View an exclusive slideshow here.
Some see Rio’s favelas as crime-ridden danger zones. Cavi Borges, a local filmmaker, sees them as dynamic film sets.
The movie producer and director hops on the back of a motorcycle taxi at the base of the Vidigal favela—a shantytown snaking up Morro Dois Irmãos in Rio de Janeiro—and zips through a series of alleyways and cobblestone streets until the road ends and he stands before a sweeping view of the crescent beaches of Leblon and Ipanema, the city’s most affluent neighborhoods.
Borges then gestures behind him to a boutique hotel under...
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