The extent of my knowledge about favelas come from watching City of God. Since the movie paints such a bleak picture, I never would have guessed that there was such a vibrant music scene present there. According to SHFT.com:
In Santa Marta, a hillside favela in the heart of Rio de Janeiro, two artists from Holland are using a massive art intervention to transform the community. Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn originally came to Brazil in 2005 to shoot a documentary on the vibrant favela music scene. They never left. The two stayed in Rio to form Favela Painting, an organization dedicated to creating "striking artworks in unexpected places" that transform poor communities into radiant landmarks. For their latest endeavor, “O Morro” (The Hill), they enlisted the help of local youths to paint 34 houses with beams of bright color, radiating into the city.
As you can see from the illustration above, the end goal is to paint the whole hill. Follow their progress by friending them on Facebook.
Their stuff looks great! And favela funk sounds pretty good.
