In Samba on Your Feet the filmmakers go behind the carioca milieu to document samba and the Carnival. The one-hour documentary traces the influences that contributed to shaping the music that consecrated Carnival as one of the most powerful cultural manifestations in Brazil. Roots and perspectives, flesh and ghosts, entities and divinities spread across the slums and over the sidewalks of Salvador, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro are essential to the make-up of the Brazilian musical exponent par excellence. Samba on Your Feet introduces the voices of Cartola, Caetano Veloso, Ismael Silva, Clara Nunes, Clementina and many others whose perspectives on the cultural affairs of Rio de Janeiro have been carefully articulated with interviews of exponents of the Brazilian culture today. This dialogue between past and present takes place throughout the movie between precious scenes of archive footage from private collection and government resources. Samba on Your Feet was mostly shot in the marginal slums, in the umbandaterreiros, in the favelas where the less fortunate inhabitants of Rio strive to overcome overwhelming rates of crime and illiteracy to the rhythm and soul of the music they call samba. Samba on Your Feet has been invited to participate at the ToulouseFilm Festival, France 2008; Rio International Film Festival, Brazil 2006; Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival Argentina 2007; and Toronto Film Festival, Canada 2007. Samba on Your Feet is currently being screened at campuses throughout the US, and abroad.
Reviews
Haroldo Costa, the protagonist of "Orfeu da Conceição" a play by Vinicius de Moraes that gave rise to "Orfeu Negro", is the omnipresent narrator of "Samba on Your Feet", a documentary by Argentine Eduardo Montes-Bradley. "The result is a very honest historical portrayal of the history of Samba and Afro Brazilian traditions from the slave ships to the present day. It is not a dazzling, gringo film" - Aroldo Costa.
Crew and credits
Produced, edited and directed by Eduardo Montes-Bradley
Photography by Mustapha Barat
Direct Sound by Bruno Fernández
Written by Juan Trasmonte and Eduardo Montes-Bradley
Cast
Haroldo Costa. Historian, and writer. Costa has been involved in the cultural life of Rio de Janeiro since the early 1950s. He was better known as the protagonist of Orfeu da Conceição, a play by Vinicius de Moraes which paved the way for an Orfeu Negro. Today, Haroldo Costa is revered as one of the foremost authorities in carioca folklore, with particular emphasis in samba and Carnival.
Xangô da Mangueira. Singer and composer. Xangô is living witness to the times when Carnival and samba met for the first time in the streets of Rio de Janeiro.
Tia Surica . Active as a member of the Old Guard of her beloved Portela School of Samba. Her home, known as the "Cafôfo da Surica", is a fertile ground for musicians, and dancers seeking advice and support.
Herminio Bello de Carvalho. Poet, producer, and composer. Herminio is instrumental in understanding the movement known as MPB. His name is associated with the history of Cartola, Pixinguinha, Nelson Cavaquinho, Carlos Cachaça, Elton Medeiros, Mauricio Tapajós, and Clementina de Jesus.
Mart'nália. Singer and composer. Her name is referential to musicians in Europe and the US. She also is the daughter of legendary samba composer and singer Martinho da Vila.
Paulo Barros. Carnivalesque. Paulo designs and conceives the motif that distinguishes Unidos da Tijuca Samba School during the Carnival. He organizes all creative aspects of parade and takes either credit or blame for the success or failure of the escola. In the three years that Paulo has been leading Unidos da Tijuca he has transformed the Carnival. In many ways, Paulo Barros is considered a revolutionary.
Teresa Cristina. Singer. A true carioca, "one that will sing with her eyes closed in front of a wild loving audience in the night clubs of Rio de Janeiro where everything smells of samba and cachaça".
Mãe Helena D'oxsse. Priestess in the Umbanda tradition. She introduces samba in her extreme religious practices. Mãe lives in one of the poorest suburbs of Rio de Janeiro where she entertains lower and working class followers of Umbanda and Candomblé.
Festivals / screenings
Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. Charlottesville, VA. Conference-Screening. March 12.
