A three-part Everyman series exploring the impact of Christianity on South
America, 500 years after the conquistadores. 2: The City -
Battle of the Gods
Friday night fever in the cities of Brazil is not so much about disco-dancing as spirittrancing. It is when the 30 million practitioners of Umbanda, a voodo-like cult that started this century, perform their strange rites. Umbanda, a synthesis of African and Amerindian gods with Catholicism, is Brazil's fastest-growing religion. At spiritist centres, like those run by Abraham in the slums of Rio, or Marilda or on luxurious Governor's Island, possession states are used to grant favours, cure illness or lift curses. The Catholic
Church, once vehemently anti-Umbanda, now tolerates it. But for the new evangelical churches, toleration is an anathema: their Friday night services are a spectacle of mass exorcism, a battle between God and the Devil.
Film cameraman PAUL REED Film editor IAN FARR Assistant producer
MARGARET MAGNUSSON
Everyman editor DANIEL WOLF Producer JOHN PAUL DAVIDSON