Developing Stories: Life and Debt  (1992)

A van grinds to a halt on wasteland in Rio de Janeiro. Masked gunmen drag a handful of black teenagers from the vehicle, stand them against a wall and shoot them. This gruesome scene is repeated in cities throughout Brazil every day. In Rio alone over 500 street children were assasinated in 1991. Their only crime was that they were poor and they had nowhere else to go. The problem of the street children is not a new one. It results from the same pressures, argues director Octavio Bezerra, that have led to the widespread exploitation of the Amazon rainforest. Ultimately, he claims, these pressures derive from Brazil's massive US$130 billion debt first incurred 500 years ago with the Spanish conquest of the "New World"- a conquest based on the genocide and oppression of native peoples.

Life and Debt won the 1992Wildscreen Festvial Golden Panda award.

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