Bus 174

Bus 174 (Ônibus 174, 2002) is a Brazilian documentary worth watching online for how a single hijacked bus, broadcast live, laid an entire country bare. It marks the directing debut of José Padilha, who would later make Elite Squad.

One afternoon in Rio de Janeiro, a young man with a gun seizes a city bus and threatens to shoot the passengers. Camera crews arrive within minutes, and the standoff plays out for hours on networks across Brazil. Padilha refuses to stop at footage of that day. He rebuilds the life of the gunman, Sandro do Nascimento — a street kid who survived the Candelária church massacre, a person with no papers and barely a trace inside the system.

Stitched together from news tape, interviews and police accounts, the film calmly shows how a confused cordon turned a negotiation into a tragedy watched by millions. If you're drawn to documentaries about the urban underclass and institutional failure rather than dry crime reporting, this one stays with you. Stream Bus 174 (2002) online on iFILM.