Rota ABC

“Born in a working suburb /in an underdeveloped country/ Just to be part of the mass/ of a bankrupt society”, punk rock group Garotos Podres (Rotten Kids) sing about their native city São Paulo in ROTA ABC. It is an utterance characteristic of a generation of youngsters whose parents belonged to the elite of the working class. Their fathers and mothers believed in the progress of the Brazilian dream of the sixties, but the adolescents only see the concrete, the asphalt and the smoke that this dream has brought them. São Paulo, the largest city in South America, constitutes a harsh and deranged reality for teenagers, which explains why the protagonists of ROTA ABC prefer to seek refuge in their own fantasies, rather than their parents’ ideals. Director and Joris Ivens Award jury member Francisco Cesar Filho won various prizes for ROTA ABC at the 1991 Brasilia Film Festival, and the documentary was screened at festivals in places such as Oberhausen, Locarno and New York. The film is also an homage to the classic production SÃO PAULO INC. (1965) by Brazilian director Luis Sergio Person.