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In today's post-modern film world, more often than ever before, feature directors come from backgrounds in directing commercials. Like with music videos, the kinetic, visually arresting style of modern advertisements appeal to today's younger, easily distracted audiences – of which I am a proud member. The studio thinking here is simple: if you can sell something to an audience in 30-60 seconds, imagine what you can do over the course of two full hours. Sometimes this transition from advertisements and videos lead to a sense of style-over-substance filmmaking – think Francis Lawrence, director of the visually creative, but devoid of content flicks Constantine and I Am Legend. These aren't always bad films (I actually enjoyed both of Lawrence's shiny productions), but they are the rules that allow for certain special exceptions. After a breakout film in 2002, Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles seemed like he would be one of those special exceptions. Lets take a look at his three films to reach audiences stateside and see how his filmography has developed.


City of God (Cidade de Deus):

Based off the Brazilian best seller of the same name, Meirelles did as my freshman year English teacher used to preach: fiction or non-fiction, you should always start by telling stories about that which you know. City of God nearly reaches epic scope by spanning two decades in telling the story of youth gangs who ran the slums outside of Rio de Janiero in the 1960s through 80s. The story is told through the innocent eyes of Rocket, who, as an aspiring photojournalist, manages to associate with all of the slum's major players without getting sucked into the dangerous politics of gang warfare. Much like Danny Boyle with Slumdog Millionaire, Meirelles manages to paint a realistic and sobering look at a part of the world that hadn't been given its due attention, but without making the outing a wholly depressing affair. He takes his training and experiences in making commercials and infuses that 30 second punch of energy into a two and a half hour exhilarating tour through Rio's shanty towns.

We explore these favelas with quick edits, a multitude of colors, and a near-documentary realism. There is an excess of drug use, gun use, abuse of the youth, of the poor, and of the disenfranchised – these depictions are harsh and real and not for the faint of heart. But if you can stomach it, the story is richly detailed and the slums teem with vibrant life. The movie never slows, finding time to introduce the audience to dozens of characters without feeling like a hodge-podge cramming of too much at once. The end result is a comprehensive look at a disturbing place and period in Brazil's modern history. Where most movies that deal with such heavy-handed subjects are hard to re-watch (think of films like The Pianist or Schindler's List), City of God has such a liveliness that it begs for a second viewing.

City of God was a monster success in Brazil, where Meirelles had already become a producer and director of note. In terms of its cross-over appeal to America, the movie was fortunate to come on the heels of films like Amores Perros and Y Tu Mama Tambien, both of which helped bring some needed attention to Latin American filmmakers in the early 2000s. The movie picked up some attention after screening out of competition at 2002's Cannes Film Festival. The Weinsteins brothers, then of Miramax, worked to position the film as a major awards contender. Though it went home empty handed, it managed four nominations in notable categories: cinematography, film editing, adapted screenplay, and directing for Meirelles. Amazingly, the film was not nominated Best Foreign Film. Even still, the movie made an above-average-for-foreign-films $7.6 million domestically, and a solid $23 million overseas. While Harvey and Bob were probably hoping for more, the results were nothing to sneeze at given the foreign setting and difficult-to-digest subject matter. The movie has gone on to build something of a cult following; it is a regular entry in the modern film school cannon, and even spawned a Meirelles produced, Brazilian television show that ran from 2002-2005 and a film spin-off, both of which are named City of Men (they share the slum settings of Rio and some tonal similarities, while dealing with brand new characters and storylines).

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