Educational Media Reviews Online

On the Street is an enthralling personal look at the public lives of street vendors, entertainers, and other colorful characters of daily life in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Otherwise unemployed, the twenty individuals portrayed in this documentary use their creativity or ingenuity to make their own opportunities in the public parks and city streets of this South American metropolis.

The director, Sérgio Bloch, began this project by compiling a list of the wide variety of street professions in Rio and interviewed over eighty individuals, twenty of which appear in On the Street. The documentary presents each personal account without any commentary whatsoever. These first-person testimonies often reveal a positive outlook in the face of adversity while others lament a missed opportunity, whether through a lack of education or an unfortunate circumstance.

By day, an independent photographer bemoans the decline in demand for his work due to automatic photo booths. A knife sharpener, who uses music to attract clientele, recalls the death of his father and the need to support his family, events which brought him to work in the street. Perhaps the most inspiring story is that of a once-promising athlete who lost his leg in a traffic accident. By refusing to allow his disability to frustrate his dreams, he has transformed his disability into an inspiring street show demonstrating his personal faith and ability to juggle a soccer ball. With this work he travels throughout Brazil to support his three children.

By night, a young mother prostitutes herself on the street to support her daughter. She equates her profession to an actress’s performance yet dreams of one day finding a good man who will love her. In a busy intersection of the city, two fire-jugglers give fifty-second performances to commuters for a small, voluntary contribution.

Other portraits include an entire family that offers a spectacle of popular culture in the form of street theater, a vendor of homeopathic herbs for those who cannot afford medicine, an umbrella repairman who puts his faith in God, a musical family from the Northeast, and a duo of comedians who satirize a popular television program. While highlighting some of the more colorful occupations on the streets of Rio de Janeiro, On the Street primarily seeks to expose the human element behind these urban spectacles.

All dialogue is in Brazilian Portuguese. The sound and picture quality are excellent, as well as are the yellow English-language subtitles.

This documentary is highly recommended for college students, adult viewers, and the libraries that serve them.