Last Friday, I watch the film City of God. The film depicted the lives of two individuals- Lil Ze and Rocket who grew up in Brazil-and more specifically examined how the choices made throughout their lives, and how different role models, can shape an individual’s future and influence their choices. The first individual, Rocket, grew up to be a photographer that had a long, more-so peaceful life, than Lil Ze. Lil Ze never had a role model, like Rocket had, in his life and as a result, lead a brutal, short-lived life. He sought to prove himself through violence and, as a result, became a feared drug lord. The City of God painted a violent picture of how life worked in the Favelas (slums) in Rio de Janerio during the mid to late 1900s. I feel like this film accurately shows the violence and the quality of life that occurs in Favelas during this time period. The directors of this film, Katia Lund and Fernando Meirelles, used individuals that lived in Rio de Janerio, Brazil as extras in the film. This film showed how drug lords and gang leaders used fear and manipulation to control their favelas, leading to death, rapes, and trafficking. When the police attempted to intervene, this led to shoot outs in the streets between the police force and these gangs. Essentially, police did not have the ability to intervene in these favelas or stop gang wars from occurring. Personally, I thought this movie accurately depicted life during the 70s and 80s in Brazil.