Filmes

Synopsis

The African presence in Brazilian music manifests itself in different ways. If in 1966, Baden Powell “Rio-fied” candomblé with the Afro-sambas he composed with Vinícius de Moraes, half a century later we experienced an unprecedented moment with the arrival of musicians from different African countries in the metropolis of São Paulo. In the film Afro-Sampas we see what can happen when musicians from both sides of the Atlantic are brought into contact in the city where they live. Yannick Delass (Democratic Republic of Congo), Edoh Fiho 9Togo), Lenna Bahule (Mozambique), and the Brazilians Ari Colares, Chico Saraiva and Meno del Picchia accept our invitation to a first meeting in which they share sounds, memories and creativity.

Biography

Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji is a Brazilian anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, granddaughter of Japanese migrants who arrived in São Paulo in the 1930s and of family from Sergipe with indigenous, African and European roots. Professor at the Department of Anthropology at the Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Human Sciences at the University of São Paulo. Vice-coordinator of the Laboratory of Image and Sound in Anthropology (LISA-USP). Rose is author of the books Imagem-violência: Etnografia de um cinema provocador (2013) and A música e o risco (2006), co-author of Lá do Leste (2013), co-organizer of A experiência da imagem na etnografia (2016), Bixiga em artes e ofícios (2014), Antropologia e performance (2013), Escrituras da imagem (2004) and Imagem-conhecimento (2009). She has directed or co-directed several ethnographic films, including: Afro-Sampas (2020), Woya Hayi Mawe - Where are you going to? (2018), Tabuluja (Wake up!) (2017), Guitar-Song: A Brazilian soul (2016), The Eagle (2015), Fabrik Funk (2015), Art and the street (2011), Cinema de quebrada (2008). Currently she coordinates the research project "Being / becoming African in Brazil: Making music and African cultural heritage in São Paulo", in partnership with Jasper Chalcraft, with support from FAPESP.

Jasper Chalcraft is a white British anthropologist and filmmaker who has been working with African migration as a ‘creative diaspora', and with contested or ‘difficult’ cultural heritage and how it can be used for greater social inclusion. He pursued this latter aspect recently as a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute (EUI). His publications include “Into the contact zones of heritage diplomacy: local realities, transnational themes and international expectations” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 34(6); The Making of Heritage: seduction and disenchantment, co-edited with Camila del Mármol & Marc Morell; “Decolonizing the site: the problems and pragmatics of World Heritage in Italy, Libya and Tanzania” (Berliner & C. Brumann, eds), “World Heritage on the Ground: ethnographic perspectives”; and (with P. Magaudda) “Space is the Place: the global localities of the Sónar and WOMAD music festivals” (Festivals and the Cultural Public Sphere, L. Giorgi et al., eds). Jasper is co-director of Afro-Sampas (2020), Woya Hayi Mawe - Where are you going to? (2018) and Tabuluja (Wake up!) (2017), nominated for the AHRC Research in Film Awards 2017, and with Rose Satiko Gitirana Hijiki conducts the research project “Being / Becoming African in Brazil: Making music and African cultural heritage in São Paulo”, part of the FAPESP-funded Thematic Project “O musicar Local”.

Synopsis

A family decides to open a classical music school in their own house. The six young Cruz brothers start to teach various musical instruments to the children in their neighbourhood. Little by little, the house becomes a musical meeting place in one of Fortaleza’s most dangerous neighbourhoods. But in order to live their dream of becoming professional musicians, the family needs to look for new horizons. How far will the music take them?

Biography

Paula Bessa Braz is an anthropologist and currently a PhD student in Social Anthropology at the University of São Paulo (USP), in Brazil, where she conducts interdisciplinary research on both anthropology and ethnomusicology. “Family Song” marks her debut in film direction and was conceived as a filmic ethnography following her master’s research, where the Cruz family is addressed with a sensorial take.

Mihai Andrei Leaha is an audio-visual researcher and filmmaker working in South America. His films have been shown at various film festivals and won prizes. As a board member of Commission on Visual Anthropology, IUAES, and other organizations, he is involved in curating, promoting, and programming ethnographic films at various conferences and festivals. He has taught visual anthropology in Cluj and São Paulo. He has also organized conferences and workshops on visual and multimodal anthropology in Romania, Brazil and Peru. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of São Paulo, conducting research on the DIY electronic music scene in São Paulo.

Synopsis

The taiko are the Japanese drums that spread around the world through immigration in the mid-20th century. In Brazil, Akimasa Aoyama is one of those immigrants who, like so many others, came to the country in search of new opportunities and, seeking to revive ties with his homeland, was responsible for creating the Kawasuji Seiryu Daiko, a taiko group in the city of Atibaia (SP). Check out in this interview this history that mixes music, tradition and identity.

Biography

Flávio Rodrigues is a Master's student in Music, with an emphasis on Ethnomusicology, at the State University of Campinas, where he develops the research project “The drums that vibrate in us: the community of practice of taiko in the city of Atibaia (SP)”. Graduated in Music from Faculdade de Artes Alcântara Machado (2015), with a specialization in Preventive and Social Music Therapy from Centro Universitário FMU (2017) and extension in Cultural Management from PUC-SP (2018), he is a researcher in the thematic project “O Musicar Local: novas trilhas para a etnomusicologia” since 2020. He also works as a musician, composer and educator.

Synopsis

From July to August 2020, Irish cultural institutions reopened after five months of lock-down. These spaces were closed due to Covid19, and the reopening phase was the announcement of an ambiguous moment: on the one hand, the excitement with the possibility of making live music face-to-face again – after months of virtual meetings; on the other, the concerns with health protocols and the constant fear of Coronavirus. Based on visual anthropology concepts, this documentary explores the music-making, the sounds, the senses and the feelings experienced during these returning sessions.

Biography

Renan Bertho is a PhD candidate at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) and a lecturer at the Federal University of Piaui (UFPI). Developed an internship project at the University College of Dublin (UCD) under the advisor of Thérèse Smith. Also participates as a researcher of the thematic project "Musicar Local - new tracks for ethnomusicology", coordinated by Suzel Reily. His main interests are popular music, participatory music-making and ethnography.

Synopsis

Woya hayi mawe: where are you going to? These lyrics echo Mozambican musician Lenna Bahule’s explorations both in her birthplace - Maputo - and in her adopted home of São Paulo. From the stage to the urban outskirts, we see how Lenna deals with the difficulties of being a black female musician in both Brazil and Mozambique. The artistic world of São Paulo demands her Africanity, her African references, her roots. Yet in Mozambique Lenna is now known for her success in Brazil: she brings some of Brazil’s cultural power to the stage in Maputo. Returning to Mozambique, she rediscovers her home country with new eyes. Lenna meets and works with an inspirational new generation of Maputo-based musicians, who she involves in the production of a show in Maputo’s Centro Cultural Franco-Moçambicano. From this major cultural institution, to her grandmother’s farm and a social project in Maputo’s outskirts, we see Lenna and the Maputo artivists investigating Mozambique’s traditional and popular musics and discovering new musical and activist routes. Navigating between activism and the stage, between an imagined ‘Africa’ that Brazil demands of her, and a Brazilian cosmopolitanism São Paulo has given her, Lenna discovers - in a traditional Chopi song that travels - that her musical roots were even more powerful than she imagined.

Biography

Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji is a Brazilian anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, granddaughter of Japanese migrants who arrived in São Paulo in the 1930s and of family from Sergipe with indigenous, African and European roots. Professor at the Department of Anthropology at the Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Human Sciences at the University of São Paulo. Vice-coordinator of the Laboratory of Image and Sound in Anthropology (LISA-USP). Rose is author of the books Imagem-violência: Etnografia de um cinema provocador (2013) and A música e o risco (2006), co-author of Lá do Leste (2013), co-organizer of A experiência da imagem na etnografia (2016), Bixiga em artes e ofícios (2014), Antropologia e performance (2013), Escrituras da imagem (2004) and Imagem-conhecimento (2009). She has directed or co-directed several ethnographic films, including: Afro-Sampas (2020), Woya Hayi Mawe - Where are you going to? (2018), Tabuluja (Wake up!) (2017), Guitar-Song: A Brazilian soul (2016), The Eagle (2015), Fabrik Funk (2015), Art and the street (2011), Cinema de quebrada (2008). Currently she coordinates the research project "Being / becoming African in Brazil: Making music and African cultural heritage in São Paulo", in partnership with Jasper Chalcraft, with support from FAPESP.

Jasper Chalcraft is a white British anthropologist and filmmaker who has been working with African migration as a ‘creative diaspora', and with contested or ‘difficult’ cultural heritage and how it can be used for greater social inclusion. He pursued this latter aspect recently as a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute (EUI). His publications include “Into the contact zones of heritage diplomacy: local realities, transnational themes and international expectations” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 34(6); The Making of Heritage: seduction and disenchantment, co-edited with Camila del Mármol & Marc Morell; “Decolonizing the site: the problems and pragmatics of World Heritage in Italy, Libya and Tanzania” (Berliner & C. Brumann, eds), “World Heritage on the Ground: ethnographic perspectives”; and (with P. Magaudda) “Space is the Place: the global localities of the Sónar and WOMAD music festivals” (Festivals and the Cultural Public Sphere, L. Giorgi et al., eds). Jasper is co-director of Afro-Sampas (2020), Woya Hayi Mawe - Where are you going to? (2018) and Tabuluja (Wake up!) (2017), nominated for the AHRC Research in Film Awards 2017, and with Rose Satiko Gitirana Hijiki conducts the research project “Being / Becoming African in Brazil: Making music and African cultural heritage in São Paulo”, part of the FAPESP-funded Thematic Project “O musicar Local”.