John Baeyens

The winner of the Sundance Festival, category documentaries; I’ve been waiting so long for this movie of Jason Kohn.

Plenty of non-Brazilian who wanted to visit our wedding in Rio were eager to visit Sao Paulo.  When you are in France you visit Paris, in Belgium you go to Brussels and visit Manneke Pis and in Brazil you visit Sao Paulo, né? 
Not.  I wrote a lot on Sao Paulo; through time I’ve learned to appreciate the city; I actually crave to be there again.
But you need to understand Brazilian society before you visit the city; if not it’s just too dangerous.  
Contrary to what many believe, violence in Brazil is not (just) a matter of corrupt politicians or police, not (just) a matter of drugdealers, not (just) a matter of  poverty in the Favellas.  Violence is above all a problem of the souls.  Brazilians are friendly open people; I feel way more comfortable amongst them then neurotic Belgians. 
But look again at the movie, the senator who is washing money through the frog farm, deep inside you are grinning and showing a strange pervert kind of sympathy for the man.   Don’t deny it, it’s there, very deep hidden.  Well, multiply this feeling by a factor of 100 and you have a Brazilian soul.
When you speak some words Portuguese and grab a Taxi in Rio, you’ll surely stumble on a Taxi driver who will brag of his two mistresses he supports next to his wife; if you are a man that is.   At the same that same Taxi driver will make a cross at each church he passes by (and there are many in Rio).  Until you don’t understand that strange contrast of morale you won’t understand the roots of the violence and the reason why Brazilians take it as a part of their life.

That being said: can anyone shout me the name of the remix of the opening song of the soundtrack of Manda Bala?