In the Shadow of the Hill

Between 2007 and 2013, ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics, 38,000 people mysteriously disappeared from Rio de Janeiro's densely populated slums. Set in the city's largest favela, this dramatic story of a local man believed to have been murdered by authorities is unsettlingly indicative of a larger conspiracy at play. Using inquisitive, roving camerawork interspersed with candid personal accounts, director Dan Jackson explores the many shocking transgressions that link Rio's elite police battalion to the suspicious disappearances. In the face of such pervasive state-sanctioned oppression, the community mounts a large-scale protest movement, bringing rich and poor together while pushing Brazil's missing persons epidemic to the centre of international attention. In the Shadow of the Hill convincingly discloses the police and political malice in a flawed system that criminalizes poverty. (Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival)