The Authentic “Voice of Brazil”
“Something in the air”

Turn on the radio and dial any station. It is seven o'clock PM. We are somewhere in Brazil. It's the transition of the 1970's to the 1980's. A simple moment in which you would be searching for some music turns out to be a headache. You were looking for Brazilian music made by Milton Nascimento, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil or for some dance music and everything seems more like torture. Radio became a sophisticated technique used by the military regime that controlled Brazil between 1964 and 1984.

The “Hora do Brasil” (Brazilian Time), official news program made by the brazilian government, created with the purpose of informing people about the political and economical happenings of the congress and the president was from its beginning considered by the listeners as a bitter medicine. The worst part of it is that everyone had to take the pill without the need of it.

This radio program was a tool used by the dictators to divulge their “truth” and make people believe on their achievements. Their commitment was to make sure that the government's good image could reach everyone that lived in Brazil, even the ones that were really far away from the major cities. Besides all the violences and tortures of the regime, the military that ruled Brazil censored the means of communication (television, radio, newspapers, magazines,…), used spies to control worker unions and students organizations and established an education that wanted to create a generation that was not able to think, criticize and act like citizens.

However, in the end of the 1970's many movements started questioning the government acts, fighting for more freedom and participation. Among them we can remember the metalurgical workers from the ABC region of the São Paulo state (political moment in which brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva appeared for the first time as a national leader); the movement for amnesty that fought for the release of political prisoners and the return of the exiled ones; and, a few years later, in the beginning of the 1980's, the “Diretas-Já”, when Brazilian people went to the streets to ask for the right of choosing the president through free vote.

In the beginning of the 1980's, as a sign of the changes that were happening in the country, when the struggle for freedom was more vigorous, appeared the first clandestine radios. They were really poor on regarding their material conditions; their “owners” were amateurs that didn't receive a penny for their work. They were not skilled as the union leaders; didn't have the culture and vocabulary of the teachers and students from university. These radios were not understood in their early days as tools to fight against the dictatorship, no even by the ones that created them.

By the way, the relationship between the fight against the regime and the illegal condition seemed to be the only common situation that united these radios and the other movements. Among all of these radios there was “Radio Favela” (Favela is a Brazilian word to describe the poorest areas of the biggest cities of the country, the shantytowns of North America), from Belo Horizonte (in Minas Gerais). In its beginning, the radio was used to speak about the excluded ones from Brazilian society like black people that were put in prison by the policemen only because of the color of their skins. Later on, it became an instrument of the community to for schools, nursery houses, hospitals…

The Movie

Jorge, Zequiel, Roque and Brau (performed by Alexandre Moreno, Adolfo Moura, Babu Santana and Benjamin Abras) are friends and live in a shantytown of Belo Horizonte. Their life perspective, even though their close friendship and origins, is quite different. Jorge is almost finishing high school and wants to go to college (his mother greatest dream); Zequiel is already working in an electronic store; Brau wants to become an artist (musician and dancer); Roque, however, turned out to be a drug dealer.

Since they are good friends, these young men decide to work together in a project to create a clandestine radio that would function in the neighborhood in which they live. To do this they work a lot to obtain the necessary equipment and tools to structure the basis of transmission of music and information they desire.

They want to overcome their problems and help the local community in their needs. They wish to escape the local reality in which some young men become thieves or drug dealers. The only one that left their project was Roque that continues working as a drug dealer and getting “easy money”.

The group have the best intentions but the authorities, in a period of great repression, don't want a popular and free voice on the air. Policemen and politicians don't want to be criticized by a radio that claims to be the real voice of Brazil and reaches not only their neighborhood but also the whole city.

The true story of the “Radio Favela”, adapted to the screen by Jorge Durán and director Helvécio Ratton make us follow the ways the founders of the radio had to walk on to freely reach Belo Horizonte and even Brazil with their cooperation message and freedom of speech desire…

For Teachers

1- In what way do sound waves spread? Why are there radios on different waves? What is the difference between radio and television regarding its signals emissions? What should be done for someone to build a radio station? Physics teachers could stimulate their students to structure a radio to operate on school. With the aid of other teachers, directors and students, could be set a radio programming during breaktimes. Is there a better way to understand and answer the questions in the beginning of this paragraph?

2- Radio Favela was awarded by the UN (United Nations) because of its communitary work. Actually is identified as a Communitary Radio. What does it mean to work in behalf of a community? Are there institutions like that in your city? Do some field researches to find out how these organizations are settled. If your students could realize a communitary project what would that be? What about proposing to them this idea?

3- Dictatorship was still ruling over Brazil when Radio Favela was born. This kind of political regime means that there are severe restrictions to freedom in the country. The popular reactions in the end of the 1970's like the major strikes guided by the metalurgical workers from the ABC region, the amnesty movement and the “Diretas Já” were very meaningful for the fight against the military government and for the establishment of democracy in Brazil. Ask your students to research in newspapers, magazines or in the internet the history of those movements. They could even try to interview people that lived these facts and situation through the internet.

4- What kind of music was being played on the radio stations in the end of the 1970's and in the beginning of the 1980's? Create a radio progamming based on the music of this period. Find out which rock groups were successful. Who were the singers that were known by most people? The music of this period had any political influence? Music can be used by political parties and by governments to achieve their particular goals?

João Luís Almeida Machado
Master Degree in Education, Arts and History of Culture (Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, in São Paulo); Professor at Faculdade Senac in Campos do Jordão; Middle and High School teacher; writes weekly columns for the website Planeta Educação

Send e-mails, comments, suggestions and critics for:
profjoaoluis@planetaeducacao.com.br

Technical Information

Something in the air
(Uma Onda no Ar)

Country/Year of production:- Brazil, 2002
Lenght of time/Gender:- 92 min., Drama
Directors: Helvécio Ratton
Screenwriters: Jorge Durán and Helvécio Ratton
Cast:- Alexandre Moreno, Adolfo Moura, Babu Santana, Benjamin Abras, Edyr Duqui, Priscila Dias, Renata Otto, Hamilton Borges Walê, Tião D'Ávilla.

Links
(in portuguese)

- http://www.cineclick.com.br/criticas/index_texto.php?id_critica=640
- http://www.adorocinema.com/filmes/onda-no-ar/onda-no-ar.htm
- http://www.cinemaemcena.com.br/crit_editor_filme.asp?cod=259
- http://e-pipoca.cidadeinternet.com.br/filmes_zoom.cfm?id=4651