DVD Details: Brazil-Germany, 2001, 91 minutes, Color, Region 1, NTSC, Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0, Full Frame presentation, In English and Portuguese with English subtitles; Special Features: Christmas in Uerê, a 24-minute update on the children; scene selections. Winner of the Audience Award at the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival.
Before acclaimed films such as PIXOTE, CITY OF GOD and BUS 174 brought the plight of Brazil's urban youth to the world's attention, WARRIOR OF LIGHT followed extraordinary Brazilian social activist Yvonne Bezerra de Mello as she rescued street kids in Rio de Janeiro's most dangerous slums. This socialite's life was galvanized by the 1993 Candelaria massacre of homeless children at the hands of Rio's military police. She became a world-famous human-rights crusader, founding Projeto Uerê (Children of Light) to protect and educate the survivors of the atrocity and many other kids living on Rio's streets. Facing contempt from Brazil's wealthy elite while risking her life in slums terrorized by drug lords, she builds shelters, establishes safe houses, and, above all, provides education, music, and boundless affection to children who have previously known nothing but poverty and abuse. Honored by many awards including Femme Lumière of the 20th century by UNESCO, Yvonne Bezerra de Mello is a fiercely individual female pioneer, a woman who is as vividly real as she is inspirational.
