Rio Breaks on Brazilian TV
Brazilian TV host takes Rio Breaks star to meet Kelly Slater in Hawaii.
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Surf documentary Rio Breaks, written and produced by HUCK Magazine founder Vince Medeiros alongside director Justin Mitchell, has become a big hit on Brazilian television.
Luciano Huck, host of one of Brazil’s most popular TV shows, watched the film about a favela surf club, fell in love with it and decided to put all of his clout, resources and plain hard production cash (his programme has institutional status and draws about 12 million viewers every week) to help the film’s characters.
In the programme, which aired on March 6, Luciano meets Naama, one of the surfers in the film who says that his dream is to go surfing in Hawaii. Luciano surprises Naama when he stops by his house in the favela, TV cameras in tow. At the end of the visit, he says he’ll not only take Naama to Hawaii, but also introduce him to Kelly Slater. In exchange, Naama has to promise he’ll never join the drug gang, keep going to school and agree to learn English.
Naama’s meeting with Slater is likely to go down as one of the most tear-inducing moments on television. It could have looked exploitative but it didn’t. Naama is sincere and fearless - a fearlessness hewn from the hardship of real life, from growing up without a fridge (as he says in the show), from seeing his brother killed by the police. So when he breaks down upon meeting Slater, you know that moment matters. You know it’s real. On their return, Luciano buys the family an apartment in Copacabana, moving Naama and his family out of the favela.
The TV presenter has also fully refurbished the surf club, which now has the capability of shaping boards from scratch, a screening room, dressing room and all the structure needed to operate as a cultural and sporting hub in the favela.
The filmmakers have started a non-profit, the Rio Breaks Foundation, to get the new club up and running, and Luciano will stay onboard and keep an eye on the project as it moves forward.
To donate, please contact: donate@riobreaks.com
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Rio Breaks on Brazilian TV (text) by HUCK HQ is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.Comments (3)
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I've visited the site many times and the dates of the movie in theater isn't written. Do you guys have an idea of it ? Or when will it be out on dvd ?
I really wanna check out the soundtrack too, any information ??
Rio Breaks will be released in Brazil very soon, the exact date is currently being finalised.
It will also be screening on the Sundance channel in the US, Europe and Asia.
The DVD will be released in July.
I hope this helps?