at a glance

due to the compostion of the occupants of the area, which consisted of a very miscellaneous array of people from more than fifty dismantled favelas, cidade de deus has a very diverse  population to this day. this brings with it some social problems, but also enriches the community culturally. a vast number of organizations, community initiatives and clubs are working together to address the social problems inside the neighborhoods, often using the cultural wealth for their pupose.

contrary to popular belief, cidade de deus is not a favela community, since it gained the official status of independednt neighborhood at the end of the last century, along with several other settlements.

the success of the movie 'city of god', which premiered in 2002, brought the historical issues concerning criminality in the neighborhood to the puplic attention worldwide - in 2009 this movie was named one of the top 100 films of all time by time magazine. in 2011 president obama visited city of god during his visit to brazil and rio de janeiro, witnessing the improvements of the neighborhood and indirectly helping to attract positive attention to the district.