Yvonne Bezerra de Mello

On 12 June 2000, in Rio de Janeiro, Ônibus 174 was taken by an armed young man, threatening to kill all the passengers. Transmitted live on all national networks, this shocking and tragic event became one of violence's most shocking portraits, and one of the most terrifying examples of police incompetence and abuse in recent years.

A feature-length documentary on Yvonne Bezerra de Mello, award-winning artist and human-rights activist who has gained international recognition for her work with street children in Rio. The film recounts how a woman turned her back on a wealthy lifestyle, driven into action by the execution of 8 streetkids by military police in 1993. In subsequent years Yvonne's struggle to better the lives of endangered and abandoned children has led her to found "Projeto Uere" ("Children of Light") a radical project committed to protection and education of kids who live in the streets and slums of Rio which has brought her into conflict with Brazil's wealthy elite.

The artist Yvonne Bezerra de Mello, who, on her return to Brazil after several years living in Europe, was confronted with the situation of violence against children, was a central figure in denouncing the massacre of minors in the Candelaria Church (1993). This is a lucid and raw interview interspersed with street footage, living with the reality of abandoned children in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro.

15 years after our award-winning documentary WARRIOR OF LIGHT, the portrait of internationally acclaimed human rights activist Yvonne Bezerra de Mello and her work with street kids in Rio, ZONA NORTE is investigating the development and sustainability of the project. Over the years Yvonne has developed a new pedagogy that helps children who are traumatized by violence to overcome their experiences and the resulting learning problems. The children we portrayed 15 years ago are now young adults. They report from their lives in the most dangerous favela in the north of the city. They are the living proof that an alternative pedagogy is capable to break the vicious circle of poverty and violence.