Favela Gallery

Paulo Vítor Dias, left, and Marcos Vinicius Clemente work on the miniature shantytown used for filming at Rio’s Project Morrinho.  (Wania Corredo / For The Times)

Nelcirlan Souza de Oliveira spray-paints an identification sign at the Project Morrinho art collective in Rio’s Villa Pereira da Silva.  (Wania Corredo / For The Times)

At the Project Morrinho art collective, a toy firearm is spray-painted for use as a prop in the miniature shantytown used for making animated films.  (Wania Corredo / For The Times)

Miniature props are readied for the small-scale shantytown used for making animated films at Rio’s Project Morrinho art collective.  (Wania Corredo / For The Times)

Miniature firearms are lined up for use in the making of animated films in Project Morrinho’s small-scale shantytown.  (Wania Corredo / For The Times)

A close-up look at miniature interiors in Project Morrinho’s small-scale favela, or shantytown.  (Wania Corredo / For The Times)

A miniature version of the surrounding favela, or shantytown, occupies a hillside at the Project Morrinho art collective in Rio’s Villa Pereira da Silva neighborhood. The small-scale set is built of scavenged materials.  (Wania Corredo / For The Times)

Renato Dias readies his camera while at work in Rio de Janeiro’s Project Morrinho art collective.  (Wania Corredo / For The Times)

Renato Dias edits images at Project Morrinho, an art collective in a Rio de Janeiro favela, or shantytown.  (Wania Corredo / For The Times)

Capoeira is a competitive martial-arts dance, a Brazilian specialty. Sergio Henrique, left, is such a specialist in the form that he is known as Mestre (or Master) Gargamel. He’s working with Robert Pacheco at Nós do Morro, an arts collective in the Rio de Janeiro favela, or shantytown, known as Vidigal. They are accompanied by, background left to right: Marilene Gonçalves, Selma Miranda and Isac Douglas Nascimento.  (Wania Corredo / For The Times)

At the Nós do Morro arts collective in Rio, a capoeira specialist known as Mestre Gargamel (Sergio Henrique), left, works with Robert Pacheco. They are accompanied by, background, from left: Marilene Gonçalves, Selma Miranda and Isac Douglas Nascimento.  (Wania Corredo / For The Times)

Music is essential to capoeira. Sergio Henrique, known as Mestre Gargamel, plays atabaque during a session at Nós do Morro.  (Wania Corredo / For The Times)

At Rio’s Nós do Morro collective, prominent Brazilian filmmaker Carlos “Cacá” Diegues, center, joins film director Luciana Bezerra, left, and Nós do Morro founder Guti Fraga.  (Wania Corredo / For The Times)

Reginaldo de Tulio, right, is founder of Cine Favela, a filmmaking collective in Heliopolis, a shantytown on the outskirts of São Paulo, Brazil.  (Erick Monstavicius / For The Times)