摘要：This article traces a historical panorama of the representation of Rio’s favelas in Brazilian musical comedy films, known as chanchadas , from the 1930s to the early 1960s. With rare exceptions like that of the film Favela dos meus amores (1935), we point to the more constant presence of the favela as a setting staged in the studios in musical numbers of films released until the mid-1950s. Taking as a milestone the film Depois eu conto (1956), the favela representation is increasingly politicized in the genre until the end of the decade. In the context of polemics about the removal of favelas and the social activity of Catholic Church in transforming this type of popular housing into a “public problem”, we analyse Três colegas de batina (1961), in which a favela acquire great importance for its plot, but with an ideological discourse distinct from the best-known films of the Cinema Novo movement.
