Território Violento

I was caught off guard by this film for the only person that I recognized in the cast was Peter Paige from Queer as Folk, he only plays a tiny role of public radio producer. Anyway this film is based on a true story of 2 adolescents from the housing projects of South Chicago that are asked to document their lives by a public radio station. The producer from the radio station is accused of exploiting the youths and tempers flare. The film is a harrowing and brutal portrait of life in the projects and how many residents there don't see much hope of improving their lives. While many detractors of the film will see that this film concentrates on the negatives there are several positive characters also. The character of LeAlan Jones and his family are beacons of hope. Overall I enjoyed this film.

For what ever it worth this movie/documentary is extremely boring from the beginning to the very end. The keep on ever going of using both black/white and color film that keep on switching is really annoying and very much unattractive.

The story is same old same old, talking about the bad black people neighborhood and tried to bring out the truth and tried to make us the viewer feel bad for them. At end (if you even watch it to the end) you will actually feel bad and asked one self "How did I managed to watch this entire film?"The film is sure not worth a watch cause it is damn boring.

Rating: 4/10

I live in Singapore. All the way the other side of the world, in Southeast Asia. I lead a comfortable life, there are no ghettos here. No shootouts. And this movie isn't the first I've watched about living in the ghetto or about the nitty gritty harsh realities of life that I have been lucky enough not to experience myself.

But I don't need to be in the ghetto nor do I need to have lived through them in order to empathise with the characters. This movie's portrayal of the common human condition was convincingly moving enough, without it being overly sappy, that I who live on the other side of the world am able to identify with their emotions and feel for the characters.

For that, I do think it was overall a good movie.

In Chicago, the Afro-American teenager friends Lloyd Newman (Brandon Hamond) and LeAlan Jones (Roderick Pannell) win a contest promoted by the successful producer Dave Isay (Josh Charles) of NPR – National Public Radio – for a documentary about the daily life in the ghetto where they live. They prepare a documentary showing their routines, the life in their neighborhood, and it becomes controversial, with some negative reviews of important persons of their community. Nevertheless, they are awarded as the 1997 Chicago Citizen of the Year. Dave becomes a close friend of the boys and their families, and they decide to prepare another documentary about the death of Eric Morse, a young kid dropped from the 14th floor of a building in the compound by two other boys on 14 Nov 1994. They win the prestigious Peabody Award with their work. "Our America" is a good movie based on a true story and is about the dramatic situation of many poor people living in ghettos and slums. The story happens in North America, but it could have happened in any country in South America, Afrika, Asia, and even Europe. I liked this film because it touches a serious wound, the social debt of the society with many persons. Further, it is not corny, but it gives some hope, when we see two boys like Lloyd and LeAlan having a chance to improve their lives. It emphasizes the importance of friendship and sympathy, to help those who need. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Território Violento" ("Violent Territory")

"Our America" tells of two black juvi's who are given recorders so they can do a radio documentary of their project/ghetto. An unfortunate but well intentioned flick, "OA" has nothing new to offer and appears to be a misguided attempt to expose the real truth behind the projects (drugs, gangs, crime, cockroaches, etc.) as if we haven't had our fill of ghetto flicks. What is worse, our heros play a game called "Knockout" which involves dropping rocks from a freeway overpass which everyone knows is as potentially lethal as the gangbangers shooting up the "hood" with their Uzzis and for which they receive a mere reprimand. Stupid tripe not worth the time. (F)