Flavio

Gordon Parks was on assignment for Life Magazine to photograph the slums above Rio. He's taken with 12 year old Flavio da Silva and makes a short about his tough life. It's a very compelling story with heart-breaking imagery which sets off an avalanche of giving. After a cursory dig into this story, it's quickly evident that this is only the tip of the iceberg. There is the bigger world politics. Flavio's life would continue. There is the question of best intentions and the media spotlight. It all begs to ask for the solution.

First, I'd like to commend TCM for being willing to play a 12' documentary short film made in B+W and directed by that masterful cinematographer (as well as still photographer for Life magazine) Gordon Parks back in 1964 during prime time on a weeknight on their "extended-cable" TV channel. Secondly, after it had been shown to U. S. audiences, so many wound up being moved by this cinema verite movie of a fairly typical "day in the life" of a boy named Flavio who lives in a vile South American slum, that Flavio was able ultimately to travel to the U. S. and be treated for his asthma. This is yet another fine example that shows you how a documentary becomes more than just a movie, and can change subjects' lives and history itself, whether it's changing a brutal industry like in "Harlan County USA," or getting an innocent man released off of death row like in "The Thin Blue Line," or making a hard-working asthmatic boy's hard life just a trace easier. Recommended: 8/10.