Word: brazilians
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...dying" mother and the village mayor who acts as if he's Vito Corleone. Creative chicanery: that's capitalism, Third World-style. If films weren't overtly political, they were insistently social. Some of the strongest works examined the working-class, the out-of-work, the criminally forlorn. The Brazilian City of God, directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, is a ferocious fresco of Rio slum kids who grow up to be vicious gangsters, if they don't die first. The movie's style is as hyper as the coked-up kids, but City of God manages...
DIED. JOSE LUTZENBERGER, 75, outspoken Brazilian environmentalist; after a heart attack; in Porto Alegre. Once a salesman for a German chemical company, Lutzenberger changed jobs after visiting an apple orchard that had been sprayed with his company's chemicals. As Brazil's Secretary of the Environment, Lutzenberger pushed for punitive measures for industrial polluters and helped create an oasis in the Amazon for the Yanomami Indians...
...thought "Spaghetti Western" seemed like an odd pairing, consider this: "Brazilian jiujitsu." The rich and varied culture of Brazil has met the venerable fighting style of Japan--and the result is a burgeoning martial-arts craze in the U.S. Academies that teach Brazilian jiujitsu, rare a few years ago, now number more than 250 nationwide. Renzo and Royler Gracie's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Theory and Technique is Amazon's No. 1 martial-arts book. And as with any true trend, celebrities are getting in on the act: Nicolas Cage and Ed O'Neill (Married ... With Children's Al Bundy...
...What is Brazilian jiujitsu? Unlike most other martial arts, it involves no spectacular throws and kicks and no ceremonial bows. Unlike boxing, it has no punching. And unlike virtually every other fighting technique, it does not rely on brute strength. Brazilian jiujitsu is a form of self-defense that takes place almost entirely on the ground. Fighters use snakelike grappling moves to choke their opponent, or, with the weight of their entire body, they press against key joints, bringing them close to a breaking point. Losers acknowledge defeat simply by tapping their fingers on the ground...
Part of the appeal of Brazilian jiujitsu is that smaller men--and women--can triumph over heavyweights. That became clear in 1993, when Royce Gracie, a 170-lb. Brazilian jiujitsu pro, expertly overcame 210-lb. wrestler Ken Shamrock, stunning pay-per-view audiences for the first Ultimate Fighting Championship, held in Denver. That match put Brazilian jiujitsu in the ring and on the map. It also gave the U.S. its initial glimpse of the Gracie clan. Royce's father Helio Gracie and his uncle Carlos Gracie spawned the fighting style in Brazil. Today their charismatic descendants--Gracie brothers, cousins...