Q1: From a moral standpoint, do you think Vik’s project was acceptable?

Throughout the film, I struggled with the morality of the project that Vik was pursuing. While he did end up giving the money he raised to the people he photographed, I couldn’t get over the sense that they were being exploited to some degree, and that the project was more important for Vik than it was for the subjects, and to a degree, he was doing it to prove to himself he had moved past being that poor kid growing up in a Sao Paulo favela. To that end, it still felt exploitative despite the positive effects that it had on the subjects.

Q2: What do the subjects of Vik’s photographs reveal about how class interacts with race and gender in Brazil?

Looking at his subjects, they were largely non-white and female, with several of the women experiencing some sort of gender-violence. As such, it is clear that poverty in Brazil is disproportionately felt by non-white individuals and women.