This thesis is an ethnographic study of the Núcleo de Audiovisual (Audiovisual Center) of the Central Única das Favelas (CUFA), a cultural and civic NGO located in Cidade de Deus, a favela in Rio de Janeiro’s West Zone. The main purpose of the study is to demonstrate the articulations between culture and politics established by the community. In other words, we attempt to show how the Center instrumentalizes culture in the service of citizenship, or—to use native terminology - of resignifying the favela. In order to do this by means of participant observation, complemented by eleven interviews and one focus group, it was necessary to describe in brief the history of the NGO and its Audiovisual Center, as well as to underscore the importance of the Audiovisual Course and the partnership with the Communications School of UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) in this process. Finally, further developments were mapped in order to demonstrate the results that the community itself finds most relevant: namely, access to knowledge (whether or not of an academic nature) and the generation of opportunities. It was also observed that, although vocational training was an important goal for the group, the most significant gain was in what we call subjective mobility.