Documentary on Origins of Brazil Carnival

Saturday, June 07, 2008 clivia 1 Comments

was watching a documentary this morning and it moved me so much i had to blog about it.. They're showing the origins of Brazil carnival not in direct historic sense.. but through the eyes of different individuals of different walks of life...

From as young as 13 to as old as 80 and its the most beautiful thing..
You see the country through different perspectives..
the Original Indigenous people.
the poor but hopeful,
a teenage girl who cleans houses but dreams of being a football player
the techno youth..an aspiring female helicopter pilot,
a 1st generation upper class Brazilian woman who felt compelled to discover the real Carnival by joining a Samba school and being trained even though it involved her leaving the safety of her modern capital to go the favelas [Shanty Town]

the archaic traditions, the religious ceremonies...strange and mysterious..
They've covered Candoble...the samba dancers that are the lead dancers ..the naked ones? Represent the high priestess in the religion..[never knew that]
Capoeira--the african drums and rhythmn
the religious good Friday procession..the choreographed movements
The boat people....the floats
The indigenous people..The body paints and movement

I wanna GOOOO.. Portugese is delicious... add that to my list.. i want to speak Portugese

Anyways.... what they also did in essence is show all the different parts Cultural, financial, historical, religious... that have added to the Unique Brazilian Carnival... that leads up to the show in the Samba Drome..

These women ... make me want to run from here to Georgia every morning, Stop eating anything but water and wafer thins...

They're Beautiful, BODY beautiful.. I mean the formula for
these women are the same as ours.. Years of race blending...[i love that word] that have refined the features to perfection...same as Trinidad

But damn.... Poor men... you see
them looking like they know that they're giving themselves whiplash.. but they cant help it .. who can blame them..

The spectacle is AMAZING!!

Me, being the punk that i am [the chick who had an almost religious, emotional melt down seeing Rudder and Jesus perform Oil and Music at Madison Square Garden this year] would have probably been in tears if I were in the midst of it.

The details...the details...
whats more is that they haven't gone modern on their production
every thing is individually made and crafted..

I'm in awe Its mass choreography... and singing..
Singing and dancing..
its pore raising....
and some how in the midst of all these churning bodies.. they've been able to find each person that they individually featured..

They're all there...even the 80year old dancing...
and they show them after returning to their lives...

Inversion and Transformation...
a civil servant became a carnival queen
a cowhand a rodeo star
a student a pilot
a school girl an angel
a life without hope a life without limits..
all in a country where a shoe shine boy became a president..
This is the spirit of Brazil




1 comments:

Loli said...

So what was it called and how can I find it?