About two years ago, a “hectic worker, family man”how is the person responsible for the Dawn RJ started posting videos of the streets of Rio de Janeiro when most people are at home, sleeping. Unlike practically all YouTubers, whoever runs the channel prefers not to appear. The idea is that the images are the eyes of the person watching, as if it were you yourself walking along deserted roads in the dead of night.
The success of the channel and social networks is having such an impact that he was asked to be the subject of a film made by a Danish woman and intends to delve deeper into the cinematic field.
“I want to start transforming the videos I make into documentaries and show the situation of people on the streets, in the early hours of the morning.“, said.
Used to arriving home from work late at night, he decided he would start filming the streets and posting them on the Internet. “Early hours are nothing new to me. I always worked early in the morning. There were no job openings for me during the day, so I ended up working at night. Since I served in the barracks, I started spending the night on duty, noticing details that go unnoticed during the day and I fell in love with the early hours. On one of my trips, returning home from work in the early hours of the morning, I reflected on it and decided to create the channel. I thought ‘imagine if other people saw what I see at night?’ I remember talking to my mother that I saw myself speaking to a lot of people, but I didn’t see myself in a church pulpit. This is my way of talking to a lot of people.”.
In fact, many people have heard the deafening silence of the early morning in the channel’s videos. One of the posts, showing the Pavuna neighborhood, has almost 300 thousand views on YouTube. There are more than 96 thousand subscribers. The decision not to appear came from the followers themselves, who asked for the lens to be free, recording everything possible, be it the content standard, which also goes to Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Twitter.
“I don’t appear clearly in the images and when I gave some interviews I even wore a mask to continue with this mystery. But when I’m recording, behind the camera, I make a point of being seen by whoever crosses my path.”
The first thought that probably comes to mind for anyone watching a video from the channel is “what about fear?”. Well, the person responsible for Madrugada RJ guarantees that he is not afraid of what may cross his path even though he knows the risks. “Once, a guy even commented on a post that I must have a lot of faith to make these records. And that’s it. I know that I live in a dangerous state with high crime rates and everything, but I don’t feel the fear, because I always try to be right in my life, with my children, my wife, my friends, family. I know that being right, walking correctly, I will not be charged for anything and I will be able to walk calmly, protected, following my path and respecting the dawn and the people in it. I ask for protection, permission and I don’t feel fear.”.
Despite the tranquility, the eyes and the lens cannot fail to see tense, frightening and worrying situations. He says he once recorded a fight between a transvestite and a taxi driver. The video, still at the beginning of the channel, was seen a lot, but was removed at the request of one of the people involved in the confusion.
“There was a day when I saw a figure in an alley between two cemeteries in Vila Rosali, in São João de Meriti. I know that there is a tough street where women were raped, people were killed. In addition to the cemetery itself, this street has its own energy. And there, I saw a figure that looked like a person, but was nobody. I looked again and didn’t see anyone. The camera didn’t catch it, but I saw it. There are some places that I pass by and come home light, but there are some that I arrive at tired, as if I had run a marathon, the load of the place is so heavy.”
The channel’s next steps could be outside Rio de Janeiro. Madrugada RJ has already been to São Paulo and wants to visit all the capitals of Brazil to make videos, starting with Curitiba, where he has many followers and subscribers.
Resident of Baixada Fluminense, more precisely Nova Iguaçu, responsible for the Madrugada RJ channel, while talking about his work with the RIVER DIARY, was preparing for the next tour, this time in the North Zone of the city. She said what she had to say and went on her way, after all, the night is long and the dawn is even longer.
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