Click here to watch the documentary (image: CEFAVELA/reproduction)

Published on 08/12/2026

Agência FAPESP* – In partnership with the Movement for the Defense of Favelas (MDF), the Center for Favela Studies (CEFAVELA) has produced the documentary What urbanization stories are told by our favelas?. 

CEFAVELA is one of the Research, Innovation, and Dissemination Centers (RIDCs) funded by FAPESP. It is headquartered at the Center for Engineering, Modeling, and Applied Social Sciences at the Federal University of ABC (UFABC) in São Bernardo do Campo, a municipality in the greater São Paulo area – the largest metropolis in the Southern Hemisphere and located in Brazil.

The 20-minute documentary was produced during preparatory meetings for the 2nd Gathering of Favelas in the East Zone, which took place in August 2025. The meetings were held in the Vergueirinho favela in the São Mateus neighborhood and at the MDF headquarters in the Vila Alpina neighborhood in the municipality of São Paulo.

During the event, participants recalled memories of the favela built through their collective efforts and struggle. A photo exhibition with the same title emerged from the documentary as well. In addition to testimonies gathered through interviews with residents and MDF leaders, materials from the archives of the movement and residents were used, including excerpts from an interview with educator Paulo Freire, newspaper clippings, and photographs taken by the residents themselves.

According to the documentary team, remembering and reflecting on the favela built by its residents is helpful for discussions about desired interventions for the future and for future generations. “Recovering the history of the struggle for housing and the community’s efforts to urbanize its territories is essential to prevent this history from being erased and to inspire new generations to continue fighting for improved living conditions in these spaces,” says Rosana Denaldi, a professor at UFABC and deputy director of CEFAVELA.

CEFAVELA’s participation in the preparatory meetings and the 2nd Gathering, along with the resulting documentary and photographic record, are part of the outreach project, “Methodological Practices for the Recovery, Systematization, and Dissemination of Memory Related to Favela Urbanization Initiatives in the East Zone of São Paulo,” which is coordinated by Denaldi, Ana Gabriela Akaishi and Leonardo Piqui.

“This is a project that combines research and outreach. Recording and systematizing information for the production of the video allowed us to expand our knowledge of these territories and the communities’ struggle for improvements,” explains the deputy director of CEFAVELA.

The outreach project involves ten additional researchers from the center, including postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduates. It is one of the initiatives that transfer knowledge produced by researchers to society.

The documentary was directed by Elton Conceição dos Santos. He wrote the script with Akaishi and Piqui, who are also CEFAVELA researchers, as well as with Sarah Oliveira Fernandes, a FAPESP scholarship recipient at CEFAVELA.

“Having the opportunity to be part of the making of this documentary was a memorable and deeply educational experience, especially given that the issue of the struggle for housing is extremely important in the Brazilian social reality,” says Santos. “In this context, learning a little about the historical process of that struggle for the urbanization of favelas and hearing the stories of some of the people involved was, in fact, transformative. Therefore, the hope is that the documentary will prompt reflection and also stir empathy in those who watch it,” he concludes.

The documentary can be viewed at youtu.be/joWN1GAXxk8. 

* With information from Janaína Simões from CEFAVELA

 

Source: https://agencia.fapesp.br/58966