Pixote (1981)

Hector Babenco, who went on to direct the acclaimed Kiss of the Spiderwoman, made an international splash with this gritty portrait of juvenile poverty and street crime in Brazil. Pixote (Portuguese slang for "Peewee") is the name of a chubby-cheeked 10-year-old runaway played by real-life slum kid Fernando Ramos da Silva. He's a natural, creating a childlike and vulnerable character left emotionally hardened and morally adrift by his brutal experiences. In an overcrowded São Paulo "reform school," a cross between a prison and an army barracks, he learns the hard facts of survival as he watches gangs prey on weaker kids, and the cops and guards abuse, beat, and even murder their charges. Pixote escapes and turns to street crime in Rio with a small gang, but his dreams of big money and a good life are dashed as they play at crime in a violent kill-or-be-killed world. Equal parts exposé and social drama, Pixote dramatizes the plight of millions of children who live on the streets or get ground up in the system that breeds hardened criminals from juvenile delinquents. Like Luis Buñuel's Los Olvidados, one of Babenco's inspirations, this occasionally melodramatic portrait of poverty is shocking and affecting, but no more so than da Silva's own life story. After completing the film he sank back into poverty and crime, and died on the streets. His life became the subject of the 1996 film Who Killed Pixote?, which showed that despite the outcry created by Pixote, Brazil has done little to alleviate these conditions. --Sean Axmaker Amazon.com

Pixote (CD)

Ten-year-old Pixote (Portuguese slang word for, "PeeWee")is one of the millions of homeless children in Brazil. He is arrested in a typical police round-up and placed in their vesion of the United States Junenvile detention centers. although them film is about the kids down in Brazil, some 20 years ago.... You would be surprised to know,... that the US system is not much better, today, than what is portrayed in this movie! The kids in the US judical and foster care systems are treated pretty much the same way as these kids are treated 20 years ago in a third world country! Some people may look at this film and say, " Oh those poor kids down there in Brazil....", but what they don't know is that nothing has changed down there and it is much the same with the kids here... in America!!! August 28, 2008

The hell of being a Brazilian street kid

Hector Babenco reveals in the production notes of this powerful film that he pains to see someone who is out of balance.

Pixote is a tour de force representaion of what it means to be a dirt poor orphan street child in Brazil. This is not an enjoyable film to watch. It is depressingly sad and gut wrenching to witness. And you will not feel uplifted after the end titles. It is however a necessary piece of social commentary that deals with a subject that only really gets press when poverty and wealth collide. Yes here I am talking about crime. Crime and poverty and misery and hopelessness are all really one and the same thing.

In Brazil in the 1970's following the so-called "Brazilian economic miracle" large amounts of cheap unskilled labour was required to keep the economic engine of growth humming along by slaving away in its factories, constructing its buildings and generally developing the foundations for megalopoli such as Rio and Sao Paulo. These cities were built on the back of this cheap labour. The Brazilian government however never provided adequate housing and amenities to this unskilled labour force and hence the "favela" (slum) was born.

Pixote played by untrained child actor Fernando Ramos da Silva is the child ambassador for and metaphor of the favela child and his life aint worth shit especially in a country where street children are often referred to as "lixo" (garbage) and the wealthier classes perceive them as crime and danger personified.

This film takes you under the microscope of the lives of those favela street kids and the daily urban war waged upon them by a society that couldn't care less about them.

It's an indictment against the Brazilian society and I suppose any third world country for that matter. You don't need to go out and become some new age peace and love altruistic freak after witnessing this film. Just spare a thought for some poor kid who has no love, no hope and no chance. And just be a little more human.



July 26, 2008

Amazing look a "street children"

This "docu-movie" is unforgettably acted by real Brazilian street kids. I can't even imagine living through what these kids have to endure. Director Hector Babenco does a phenomenal job in painting a, what I can only believe to be a true picture of the hell of being young & homeless in Brazil. January 28, 2008

There But For the Grace of God.......

This is a part of the world we live in. We have all played a part in not only creating this world, but allowing it to continue. Each and every day, with the choices we make, we either tear each other down or we build each other up. I happen to believe that we are responsible for each other. If we see a film like this and we take it to heart, then how can we be so self-indulgent and uncaring toward our fellow human beings? How can I buy an expensive car or TV or suit of clothes when there are people like this in the world? Can't I do something better with my money? When you witness these powerful and horrifying images, you get a chilling sense of what hell must be like.

Babenco, though he would probably deny it, is a true prophet. No, not in the sense of predicting the future, but in the mere act of sharing reality with us. He is telling the brutal, unvarnished truth. Many of us are uncomfortable with the truth. And so we make fun or ignore or hate those who deliver it. We would all be wise to heed these prophets.

These children happened to be born when and where they were, in the midst of hell. They did not choose this; who in their right mind would? I happened to be born in relative comfort and ease, in upper-middle class America. I have always had huge advantages over most of the people on this earth, simply because I have never been hungry. Do I think that God does not expect much of me because of this disparity? I would be a fool to think so. Therefore, I need to do what I can to make this world more equal. Why should I have everything I would ever need, and most people on earth not even have enough to eat? There is something dreadfully wrong here.

As Americans we need to do everything we can to help those who have so little in this world. In a way, we should thank God for these poor unfortunates because they have a way of helping us see what our priorities should be. They are Jesus on the road to Calvary. Do we stop and help them? Do we carry the cross? Do we wipe the brow, and give water to drink? If we do not, we reject God. And then God, in the fulness of time, will allow us to exist without him. August 10, 2006

A Hope for other "Pixotes"

The film Pixote depicts the real life crisis that is life for millions of street children in the world. This includes murder, corruption, rape, and countless other tragedies. This movie is a window into the world that exists for millions of real children. If you are interested in helping people who are in these situations, check out YWAM Brazil or World Vision, 2 organizations that work to bring God's hope and love to the most outcast and ignored. It is a shame for a movie like this to be watched but not followed up with action. July 12, 2005

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