Last night, Scion brought the first of four free film screenings to the Anthology Film Archive. Favela Rising focuses on the rise of AfroReggae, from a band using music to combat drugs and violence in the Rio de Janiero favela of Vigário Geral, to a social movement educating and empowering young people with art, music, and dance. In 1993, following the murder of four policemen by drug dealers in Vigário Geral, the police entered the favela and indiscriminately slaughtered 21 residents. Original footage of the police brutality, drugs, guns, gang warfare and deaths further instills audiences with the gravity of the situation.

FAVELA RISING documents a man and a movement, a city divided and a favela (Brazilian squatter settlement) united. Haunted by the murders of his family and many of his friends, Anderson Sa is a former drug-trafficker who turns revolutionary in Rio de Janeiro’s most feared slum. Through hip-hop music, the rhythms of the street, and Afro-Brazilian dance he rallies his community to war against the violent oppression enforced by teenage drug armies and sustained by corrupt police. At the dawn of liberation, just as collective mobility is overcoming all odds and Anderson’s grassroots AfroReggae movement is at the height of its success, a tragic accident threatens to silence the movement forever.

Favela Rising is inspiring to people seeking positive change in their communities. Dually impressive: the film (which debuted at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival) is screening to ignored audiences throughout the United States. In New York City, educational screenings have been held throughout the boroughs, including Riker’s Island.

Watch the film’s trailer after the jump.