THE HOUSE

After only 24 hours of living in our new pad in Rio’s Zona Norte it was already abundantly clear that we had picked the perfect place to spend the next six weeks.  The house where we are staying is located in a gated hillside community less than a 10 minute walk from Maracanã Stadium far removed from the tourist hotspots of Copacabana and Lapa.

Our room is on the second floor of a two story flat overlooking a middle class neighborhood and a favela nestled in the hillside across from us.  Patrick Granja, our host, lives with his girlfriend on the first floor.  The second floor is essentially a mini hostel, with Danny, another Brazilian filmmaker, in one room, two Swedish English teachers in across the hall and us three in the biggest room.  The final resident is an inquisitive little cat named Maasai.

The living room is decked out with surf boards and guitars, and a breakfast of bread, ham, cheese, fresh pineapple and very strong coffee awaits us every morning if we get up in time.

 OUR HOST, PATRICK GRANJA

The primary reason we decided to stay with Patrick was because he was a local filmmaker.  We thought he would be a great connection to have in South America and living with him, as opposed to in a hostel, would offer us a unique opportunity to see the city from the perspective of a local human rights advocate.

He grew up across the street from Maracanã stadium in a “rundown penthouse”.  His mom still lives there, but right now she is renting it out to CNN so that it can be used as their command center overlooking the stadium during the World Cup.  She also received five tickets to the World Cup final, which she intends to sell for thousands of dollars each and use the money to remodel the penthouse.

Patrick watched his favorite team, Fluminense, play over a thousand times growing up, but hasn’t attended a game since it was renovated for the World Cup.  The pitch was rotated so he can no longer remember where he was when the most important goals were scored.  He is not excited about the World Cup at all because of the problems that came with it, like the pacification of the favelas, the ensuing violence, and the rising cost of living in Rio.

Patrick’s interest and involvement in Rio’s inequality epidemic didn’t start with the World Cup. He has been editing and contributing to the weekly Maoist journal A Nova Democracia for the last 12 years. He is also a enthusiastic videographer, filming all the major protest over the last decade with the best cameras, as well as the most prominent archiver of locally produced films and footage.

His dedication to being in the midst of the action and getting the best shots has come at a cost to his health and safety.  He lost a chunk of his leg when a flash bang grenade exploded at his feet, has inhaled lots of expired tear gas and got shot at recently while in the front lines of a protest in a nearby favela, because the cops unexpectedly opened fire with real 9mm bullets.

This passion and proclivity to filming protest has been noticed by news agencies around the world.  He has sold his footage to Al Jazeera and most recently to Vice for their upcoming documentary on the World Cup in Rio.  I’m stoked to be living with him.  Hopefully we can all learn from him and start selling the footage we get in South America to keep funding our travels.

Check back soon to read all about our adventures with Patrick in Rio.

Peace