What it's really like inside Rio's infamous 'City of God'

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - Cidade de Deus ("City of God") is one of the most notorious favelas in Rio de Janeiro. It's also the most well-known, thanks to the 2002 film of the same name that won four Oscars for its depiction of the City of God as it once was: drug-ridden, lawless, and filled with an impossibly large number of guns.

But as I discovered during a recent visit to the City of God, the housing project has changed for the better. It's still not the safest place in the world (I wouldn't have walked around with a giant camera around my neck if I hadn't been accompanied by a well-liked local), but Rio as a whole isn't all that safe either.

These days, the City of God is a tight-knit, working-class neighborhood - albeit one that most Rio residents have never set foot in - that's desperate to shed the reputation of the "City of God" movie.