Samba on Your Feet

Samba on Your Feet is a documentary film by Eduardo Montes-Bradley also known as Samba! reflections of Africa in Brazilian culture.[1] The film goes behind the scenes of samba and Carnival to reveal the cultural and racial clash that gave birth to a new tradition in Rio de Janeiro.

Samba on Your Feet
Samba on Your Feet
Directed byEduardo Montes-Bradley
Produced bySoledad Liendo
Written byJuan Trasmonte
StarringXangô da Mangueira, Tia Surica, Herminio Bello de Carvalho, Mart'nália, Paulo Barros, Teresa Cristina
Narrated byHaroldo Costa
Music byCaetano Veloso, Teresa Cristina, Mart'nália
CinematographyMustapha Barat
Edited byEduardo Montes-Bradley
Distributed byHeritage Film Project
Alexander Street Press
Filmakers Library
Release date
  • November 2005 (2005-11)
Running time
60 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguagePortuguese
English subtitles

Synopsis

In Samba on Your Feet (2006) 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.[2] 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 umbanda terreiros, 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.[3][4]

Samba on Your Feet has been invited to participate at the Toulouse Film Festival, France 2008; Rio International Film Festival, Brazil 2006; Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival (BAFICI) Argentina 2007; and Toronto Film Festival, Canada 2007. Samba on Your Feet is currently being screened at campuses throughout the US, and abroad.[5][6]

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. [7]

Crew and credits

Cast
Production still: Tia Surica at home in Rio de Janeiro, May 2004
On location in the slums of Rio de Janeiro during the filming of Samba on Your Feet
  • 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 (Black Orfeo). Today, Haroldo Costa is revered as one of the foremost authorities in carioca folklore, with particular emphasis in samba and Carnival.[8]
  • 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.[9]
  • Tia Surica (Iranette Ferreira Barcellos) (65). 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 (70) is instrumental in understanding the movement known as MPB (Popular Music of Brazil). 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.
  • Brazil on the Beach, 2009[10]
  • Toulouse Latin American Film Festival 2008
  • Rio International Film Festival 2006
  • Chicago Latino Film Festival
  • Buenos Aires International Film Festival BAFICI 2007
  • Toronto Latino Film Festival 2007

Distribution

The film is distributed by Alexander Street Press through the Academic Video Store, and Kanopy Straming.[11]

gollark: I installed that web-based client thing, it should still be running in docker.
gollark: I used IRC a while ago. I wonder if my client thing is still running.
gollark: It's annoying, but... probably inevitable... that we're using Discord instead of some decentralized platform.
gollark: Yes, narrowly defined "good".
gollark: > Starting next week, we’ll begin to use our in-product screens and our blog to raise awareness of anti-racist causes and encourage you to take concrete action, such as calling on local officials to advocate for police reform.If they *actually* add political nag screens to Discord-the-application and not just Discord-the-blog, I am probably going to need to... adjust my adblocker rules?

References
  1. University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries. Catalogue reference.
  2. AfolabiIlê, "Niyi Aiyê in Brazil and the Reinvention of Africa", African Histories and modernities. p. 267 Palgrave Macmillan
  3. Filmmakers Library
  4. Janela Cultural. Joao Pessoa, Brazil
  5. Presented by Bloombars, in association with The Embassy of Brazil, the Instituto Camoes and the Washington Portuguese Language Meetup. On Thursday 2/14. Posted on Bloomscreen Indie Films, Film & Digital Arts.
  6. Distributed by Kanopy. Catalogued under Dance and Latin American Studies.
  7. Folha de Sao Paulo."Mostra reúne olhar gringo sobre o Brasil". Luiz Fernando Vianna. September 25, 2005
  8. Folha de Sao Paulo | Ilustrada. "Mostra reúne olhar gringo sobre o Brasil" by Luiz Fernando Vianna. September 25, 2005
  9. WTJU 91.1FM Interview with Eduardo Montes-Bradley | February 12, 2014
  10. The Art and Culture Center of Hollywood. Friday, March 20, 2009
  11. Alexander Street Press. The Academic Video Store
  • Alexander Street Press | The Academic Video Store
  • THR.com
  • International Movie Data Base
  • Amazon.com
  • Facebook

Citation and selected filmography
  • Latin American Popular Culture Since Independence: An Introduction / edited by William Beezley and Linda Curio-Nagy - 2nd Edition p. 192
  • Carnival in Brazilian Literature and Culture. University of Texas - Austin. Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
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