The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs in the Ivan Allen College in support from the Office of International Education present Bad' & the Birdieman, a documentary created by Rise Up & Care. Rise Up & Care is an organization founded by Kirk Bowman, professor in the Sam Nunn School and John Wilcox, board member of Mechanics Bank.

Bad & the Birdieman was featured in the 2017 Atlanta Film Festival.

About Bad' & the Birdieman

The social badminton Miratus project was created in 1998 in order to fight the lack of opportunities and idleness of young people in the Chacrinha favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  Miratus guides the youth to choose another way of life, rather than crime and drugs as a means to gain status and identity.

Sebastião, the founder of Miratus, is a true hero who built his life from humble beginnings and had the desire to also help the youth of his community.  Over the past 17 years, he and his good friend Ramos built an enormous and impressive badminton facility day by day and brick by brick. He created his own system to teach the kids championship badminton using the steps of Samba dance to learn the footwork and get them to a fitness level where many of the youth are now competing and winning national and international tournaments! They have successfully trained hundreds of young people in a sport they never played through local innovative ideas and methods. 

Rise Up & Care is the proud sidekick to Miratus, supporting them to do what they do best! A recent national tournament shows the fruit of their labor of love, and exactly why we believe in supporting local leaders in communities rather than bringing our own ideas across the world. The 28 participants from Miratus, with travel support from Rise Up & Care, won 12 gold medals, 9 silvers, and 9 bronze, dominating the national tournament in Caxias do Sul. Rise Up is overjoyed with this partnership with Miratus and all of its participants! 

What Rise Up & Care Does

Identifies: Rise Up & Care identifies and builds personal relationships with leaders of successful, passionate, and innovative non-profits in developing communities around the globe with at least five years and preferably ten years of success. All of our partners use high-level performance training to transform the lives of young people. We believe that performance-based organizations provide a ladder of inspiration, teamwork, identity and opportunity for success. These include a range of activities like badminton, acrobatics, theater, dance, photography, soccer and more. We believe performance-based organizations can provide long-term transformations and professional opportunities. We do not support new organizations or start-ups, as the failure rate is far too high. 

Invests: Rise Up & Care believes in long-term relationships established though an extensive vetting process where we personally meet organization leaders and participants and spend time at their locations. Our due diligence process includes reference checks and a detailed review of historical performance and accomplishments. Partner organizations must have transparent accounting practices.  Rise Up & Care invests in these established life-changing organizations to expand their work through enhancement grants.  

Inspires: Rise Up & Care believe that high quality film is a powerful medium for telling important stories and inspiring the world. Rise Up & Care inspires our partner organizations, their communities, and the world through high quality short and long documentary films. The world must learn about these inspirational leaders and organizations! We are producing a series of one-hour documentary films, directed by award-winning co-director of City of God, Katia Lund. 

The event in the Student Center Theater is free and open to the public. Parking is available in visitor lot 2. 

Watch Bad' & the Birdieman trailer.