Fighting for Peace

Fighting For Peace is a film about Luke Dowdney’s brainchild Luta Pela Paz, an NGO and boxing school based in one of Rio’s most violent slums, which provides young people with an alternative to a life in the drug trade. For a year EMMY and BAFTA-winning filmmakers Joost van der Valk and Mags Gavan follow Sugar (15) and Douglas (14) on their quest to become National boxing champions. Douglas comes from a family of 2 brothers and 5 sisters. His sister Suelen is addicted to crack and lives in the so-called Crackolandia, a ‘drugs pen’ just outside the slum where about 150 crack addicts live on top of each other in makeshift tents. Sugar is from one of the poorest families in Mare. He's the sole provider to his mother and seven siblings. Boxing is the only way to make money for him , so when he's in the ring his life is literally in the scales. This is a film about one strong-headed man with a vision of change and two of 'his' children he has given hope and a dream.