“This is a social experiment and experience documentary starting in the poor favella’s of Rio, Brazil but moving from there to the poorest areas of Philadelphia. Haas and Hahn are 2 dutch artists with “Challenge the Obvious” as their brand logo who look to make a massive impact upon these really poor areas..not for money!!! but to make a difference…work with the people to pick themselves up and improve their own neighbourhoods.
Inspired by their own branding logo they present this first documentary in a series about the beautiful and fantastic minds who ‘Challenge the Obvious’ every day. this initial documentary video is about Dre Urhahn and Jeroen Koolhaas, using their artistic flair in their quest to help change the lives of people who live in terribly challenged social areas of Rio de Janeiro and Philadelphia.
These people have probably not even worked before and this means that using these locals endangers both the project and the career or reputation of these two forward thinking artists..but they persevered to make it work. This is an OUTSTANDING illustration of working …really working… with the people and FOR the people.
There is emotion in this documentary and this is entwined with the dark reality of violence and poverty which is ever present in poor underprivileged areas anywhere in the world…this could go far.
Every attempt is being made to help sustain the community by introducing training and even developing paint making on site and provide art related jobs for these people. The Rio elements of the documentary is subject to subtitles but this does not detract from this superb “documentary with a real message..and action to make the message work”
These artists are giving back these people a sense of pride in the work they are doing to restructure their local neighbourhoods…this is not crime related and sits above the poverty we see here. They are producing ART on a large scale but it is not just the painting f the buildings that is the final “Piece” the real art is the smiles on the faces, the opportunities created and the change made to peoples lives.
Who says ART is WORTHLESS ? Ask those engaged on these two projects or the people living in these transformed areas. You can still support the Favela Painting Project by going to www.favelapainting.com”
