We arrived January second and met Johnny, Ty and Francisco at the airport, the others were delayed a day. Our taxi driver listened to Motorhead the entire drive and told us that he had been their tourguide when they were here last summer. Apparently we were his next band. He took us to our house at the base of Vidigal favela. Our host insisted that we have beers and chat before we headed to the Beach. We met up with Lali and Megan on Ipanema beach and spent the day swimming. I know it all sounds wonderful but this was not even the highlight of our day.
Around 6 we headed out on an hour drive to check out Academicos de Salguera samba school's carnival rehearsal in a massive football stadium, Campo de Futebol, in Andaria. We got there early just as the street was setting up for the rehearsal. People were pulling out tables and chairs and vendors were setting up stands just to hear the rehearsal. We met an older samba member and he serenaded us in the street with an improvisation about the internet. We were not supposed to film in the stadium until we got permission but while he gave the band a tour of the memorabilla room we snuck out and shot the sun setting over the mountains with the young girls practicing their group dance. Then we went on a tour of the indoor facility full of piles of red and white drums and red costumes piled high. We interviewed many people including the oldest sambista, female samba member, of the group. Then it was time for the show to begin.
The music begins with everyone in unison and then one drummer "calls" the other players into the rhythm and they respond by replecating his beat. I was supposed to get closeups of the players but the gatesthat surrounded me did not let me get close enough so I jumped right in. I was literally a foot away a drum at any one moment and teh energy from all of that collective playing was electrifying. Chris shot from above getting the wide shot. After the drumming it is time to practice the group dances in a march formation. 250 people form four lines and dance around the soccer stadium. I wanted to capture the feel of the show so I got as tight I could and stayed between the rows as hundreds of people danced past me. The crowd watching the reherasal was almost as big as the group itself. It was truly my best filming experience ever.
Today we went to Copocabana to meet up with Sidney, a resident of favela Cantagalo and an instructor at Capoeira Corpo Movimento. Trying to convince a taxi to take us to a fevala steep in the hills was no easy feet. Three people got in one taxi and Ty, Sydney and I tried for fifteen minutes to catch anouther but were repeated=ly turned down. Finally we convinced one to take us to the base of the hill and we hired kids from the fevala to take us the rest of the way on motorcycles. Fantastic. When we arrived at the school Sidney said he wanted to give me and Ty a tour of the favela but he told me I had to turn the camera off as soon as he said. I got about five minutes of allowed footage and kept the camera running at knee length for a bit before finally being warned that I needed to face it to the ground. He took us to his house got us some water and took us to the roof to see the view of the city high above the hills. We interviewed him there with Copacabana on his right and the Favela on his left. Amazing. The we talked to his wife who makes handbags and trinkets from old newspaper that Sidney paints.
We headed back to the Capoiera school and filmed a group of ten kids ranging from 4-15 singing, playing music and doing capoeira. They told us how much fun it was and how they loved it because it was a part of their culture. We got some beautiful images as the sun streamed in from one side of the entirely glass room. Then we interviewed Sidney again out back of the school amidst the backdrop of Corcovado. Then Sidney took us all on a tour of the favela and we had lunch at a local restaurant there. he seemed to know everyone stopping every five feet to say hello to someone, knockon a door or help someone with there groceries. Then he escorted us out and as we got to the base he told us that he could no longer be responsible for our safety. He kissed us goodbye and told us to come back and visit anytime. Despite the stereotypes and the underlying violence in the favelas, its hard to deny that that was one of the most warm communities I have ever been invited into.
When we got back we headed to Lebron to go body surfing and watch the sunset. Then we came back to the house to be reuinted with teh rest of the band. After hugs an kisses I came in here to blog and they are out there practicing samba.
The point of the story is you have to come to Brazil, but you better travel with a samba band because nothing can top this...and there are still three weeks to go!
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