One of many great moments between Bira and the children. This scene is shot after a long day of filming within Complexo do Mare and Bira is teaching the children about how many states there are in Brazil before a guy with a van and soda shows up.

Bira is our access guy, he tells us where we can film and where we can't. Most of the times it's can't because he wants us to be 100% safe and because there are a lot of underlying problems in the favela. Bira has a history in Mare, which I am not going to discuss further in this blog, but everyone knows him and trusts him. He runs a photography project at Observatorio das Favelas and he is the guy to know if you want to do anything in Nova Holanda.

Christoffer Næss
New School University, New York