[All links lead to Portuguese language pages. Video is in Portuguese without English subtitles]
In the neighbourhood of North East Amaralina in Salvador (Bahia), police officers banned the screening of the documentary Menino Joel [1] (Little Joel). The film discusses the death of a child during a police operation in the very same working class neighbourhood where the session was to take place.
[2]Image published on the Facebook page Mídia Periférica [2] (Periphery Media) alongside a disclaimer by Associação de Moradores do Nordeste de Amaralina (North East Amaralina Residents’ Association).
On Saturday 3rd of August 2013, young representatives of the North East Amaralina Residents’ Association (AMNA) were surprised by armed police before the start of another session of their Cinemalóca [3] project. According to a statement [4]signed by AMNA, officers claimed that the film encouraged residents to be in opposition to the police. Despite trying to negotiate the screening of a different documentary, the police forced the cancelling of the event.
The film Menino Joel by the Italian director Max Gaggino provides testimonies from the family of ten year old Joel da Conceição Castro who in 2010 was killed during a police operation in North East Amaralina. Last June Carlos Alberto Conceição [5], Joel’s cousin, was also killed by police causing protests in the streets of Salvador.
This was Cinemalóca’s third open air screening in association with AMNA, with the objective of “promoting discussion and the mobilisation of the community around the problems of violence, precarious living conditions and the neighbourhood’s neglect by the public authorities.”