When analyzing the economic system of our world today it’s become habit to dramatize socio-political aspects of enviorments so different from our own. “Poverty porn” has become the way to expose third world cultures to people of developed countries. Slumdog Millionaire and City of God are two films that utilize real film-making techniques to emphasize the divide between poverty and urbanization that exists in developing nations. As definied by the United Nations group UN-Habit, slums are a “run down area of a city” that is characterized by substandary housing, squalors, and lacking sufficient security. Asian and South American citizens of such poverty are not always treated with the same dignity and respect as those of a hegemonic nation like the United States. Throughout these films, writers and directors alike emphasize the conditions of Brazilian shanty towns and Indian slum villages with more regaurd for the reality of the economic conditions than humanity for those who live there.
When one thinks of Brazil, they typically think of beaches like Copacabana or soccer, not poverty. However, City of God provides a raw depiction of the slum reality characterized by drug cartels, crimes, and the victimized children that grow up apart of this culture. The movie is authentic; therefore, giving outsiders a look into what the communities are like for both growing children and adults in places of low development. Similarly Slumdog Millionaire, featuring 18 year-old Jamal Malik, faced public controversy due to its portrayal of Indian slum society. Unlike City of God, the latter film was produced by creative directors of India’s film making insudtry, thus proving the limit of Bollywood’s global appeal. Moreover, it displays the desolation and reality of the Mumbai slums through stories of romance and triump.
When analyzed by critics, City of God is often categorized as “poverty porn” mainly due to its depiction of urbanshanytowns. “In the Ciudad de Deus if you run away, they get you… and if you stay they get you too,” explains Rocket, the main character (4:03). This quote shows that the key component of this film is realism. Rocket claims that his family came to the slums to find their “paradise,” a tragic reality that we, as citizens of a global hegemony, may find to be a foreign concept (8:36). In Brazil, favelas are the equivalent of Indian slums and the tour of these marginalized societies has risen to be one of Rio de Janeiros’s most popular tourist attractions. The “City of God” seems more like a city of sins where organized gangster crime is the main production of profit (10:11). “Poverty porn” is a concept also relative to Slumdog Millionaire, as the director illustrates defining events of Jamal’s childhood on the poor streets of Mumbai. Did he intend to educate his audience? The nature of art in this film inflicts feelings of empathy on the audience, thus eliciting social change. Moreover, it is poverty porn because the main characters are not entirely treated with the honor that all people deserve. If he wanted to show a discouragement of human well-being, did the director have to cover Jamal in human waste (13:09)? Does that push the extent of ethics too far? There are several ways to represent bravery, yet this is not an accurate representation of the impoverished enviornment. It is rather a clever explotation that was seized in the slums. Essentially, this script has scenes when it strips the slumdogs of their dignity in order to teach a lesson on human spirit and moral direction.
A major part of India’s history has been the adaptation to Western globalization, where popular cultural has a significant impact on the identity of these people. To some, Slumdog Millionaire depicts Indian culture in a stereotypical way. Orientalist aspects of the film are presented in culture rich scences; for example, the Taj Mahal serves as a symbol of rewnewed hope and the boys’ need to endure past financial hardships (40:51). Here, the audience witnesses Jamal’s most important character transition from oriental boy to a man with position of Western capital. In its most contemporary representation, this version of orientalism eradicates the historical and economic factors of colonialism that favor a global sentiment of conformity. The film is actually representative of the “American Dream” for an Indian boy who participates in an American game and answers questions about things that will help him succeed in a capitalist culture (the U.S. dollar bill at 48:31, Cambridge Circus at 1:11:36, the French story of the Three Musketeers at 1:43:56, etc.). This is done through a use of technology, which further emphasizes the value of monetary gain and the integrates tools of globalization into the storyline. In the final scene of the film, Latika uses Salim’s phone to help Jamal answer the final game-show question (1:46:05). Therefore, the Western world of knowledge and ideas contain Jamal’s ultimate destiny.
The reality is that in countries like Brazil, where industrailzation didn’t begin until the 20th century, there have been significant links to urbanization that directly influence the design and connection of urban networks. In the beginning of this film, the low stature of societal development is highlighted when the Shaggy gets excited about the integration street lights in the community (8:50). This extreme poverty is further depicted by the lack of paved roads, electricity, and transportation that is of no concern to the rich who see the City of God as “too removed” from the typical image of Rio. Despite images of the rich and grandiose Rio de Janeiro, the city has dramatic economic dispairities. According to the narrator, “selling drugs is like any other business” in which a supplier delivers the merchandise and it is packaged on the premises in an assembly line (47:36). On the periphery of the city low income families are unable to afford living even on cheap lands, but this business of narcotics and addiction allowed for a hierarchy of jobs to provide the City of God’s inhabitant with “employment” opportunities (48:02). Moreover, if adults or kids like Rocket wanted to gain access to professional companies of employment or service were forced to travel to the city in large volumes of transit. This is the films greatest explication of issues involving displacement.
Additionally, City of God raises an important moral question about what options the children of the slums have for survivial, in such an enviorment build on crime and discrimination. After the bloodiest motel hold up in history, run by teenagers Shaggy, Clipper, Goose, and Lil’ Dice, Rocket tells the audience that “to be a real hood you need more than just guns, you need ideas,” (10:53). While their corrupt youth is emphasized by a craving to undermine drug operations, it strips any hope for these children to create a plausible future in this world. Insightfully Rocket’s father points out that his children are placed in a community devoid of education systems, where “instead [they] ought to be studying or working,” (12:22). Consquences of this instably defined socio-economic structure at the metropolitan level is the increase of social tensions and a recession of an entire country.
Together, the globalization-era films put the audience into the scenes of redemption amid the poverty and hardship of underdeveloped urban communities. Slum tourism highlights the aspect of global fascination that is a result of these films. If you did not grow up poor or in a completely impoverished community, slum tourism is man’s way of exploring that curiosity. What is it like to live in a slum? Or to see one? Voyeurism is the need for one to walk around areas of petty crime snapping pictures in order to acknowledge the realities of poverty. This type of observational behavior can be degrading to those who have only ever known life in a favela; therefore, slum tourism does not display human values of respect and dignity. The way in which slum tourism is conducted is crucial to its ethical implications. Results can be very positive, or they can yield so much resentment that citizens find anger in the engagement of these “witnesses”.