2AN INTRODUCTORY CASE STUDY �RADIO FAVELA: REPRESENTING ALTERNATIVE MEDIAIf that radio antenna was mine, the air would carry my voice, with words like bullets, that everybody would hear. [. . .] If that antenna was mine, it would spread dreams and the voice of the favela. Once this antenna is ours, my waves will open all doors and the world will change. (Brau, in Radio Favela, 0:19:35)IntroductionThe four approaches discussed in Chapter 1 can be illustrated through a discussion of Radio Favela, a Brazilian eel-good�movie directed by Helvcio Ratton. The m was st released in 2002 by Quimera Filmes as Uma Onda no Ar, (poorly) translated as Something in the Air (see Figure 2.1). Most of it is med in shback and tells the story of how Rdio Favela was established by four idealist youngsters, Jorge, Brau, Roque and Zequiel (played by Alexandre Moreno, Adolfo Moura, Babu Santana and Benjamin Abras), living in the slums or favelas of Belo Horizonte, one of the largest cities in Brazil. The m offers a romanticized and celebrative narration of the authentic history of Rdio Favela, which broadcast in the slums of Belo Horizonte from 1980. The rather stereotypical mic representation provides an exceptional insight into the core identity of alternative media, but at the same time it allows the complexities of this core identity to show through. The opening scenes of the m are quite dramatic. They show a considerable police force making its way through the hills of the favela, accompanied by a radio technician from the Ministry of Communication, who is assisting them in tracing the radio station transmitter. Simultaneously, these opening scenes introduce two of the m main characters, Zequiel, the station technician and Jorge, the station main presenter
