''Garapa'' is a 2009

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by

José Padilha José Bastos Padilha Neto (; born 1 August 1967) is a Brazilian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for directing the Brazilian critical and financial successes '' Elite Squad'' and '' Elite Squad: The Enemy Within'' a ...

. It follows the daily lives of three families dealing with

food insecurity Food security speaks to the availability of food in a country (or geography) and the ability of individuals within that country (geography) to access, afford, and source adequate foodstuffs. According to the United Nations' Committee on World ...

in Fortaleza, the state capital of Ceará in the northeastern part of

, over a few weeks in order to study hunger not merely from a macroscopic perspective but rather from the perspective of those who live with it. "Garapa" refers to sugar water given to children to tide them over in times of hunger. It was filmed in black and white by cinematographer Marcela Bourseau.

Release

The film debuted at the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the fest ...

on 11 February 2009. It then played at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...

on 25 April 2009 before its theatrical release in Brazil on 15 May 2009.

Reception

Lidz-Ama Appiah of

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

wrote that "the film is a powerful illustration of the impact of chronic starvation." Kirk Honeycutt of the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

criticized the film's lack of background information about and discussion with its subjects, writing that "the film simply shows the families getting through the day without any concern for filling the audience in on their pasts, their relationships or what they think about their dire conditions. Padilha says he chose this approach to provoke empathy about hunger. But empathy requires understanding of people, not simply observing or pitying them. You don't, in fact, understand these people. You only understand their horrifying condition."

References

External links

* {{José Padilha 2009 documentary films 2009 films Brazilian documentary films Documentary films about poverty Films directed by José Padilha Films set in Brazil Films shot in Brazil 2000s Portuguese-language films Black-and-white documentary films