6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another good dvd on rodas, February 8, 2006
This review is from: Capoeira 100% Regional-D (DVD)
This DVD is in a PAL format which is more common is Western Europe and parts of north Africa. The DVDs in the U.S. are NTSC formatted. What this means is it may not play on your DVD. Older DVD players may not play PAL format but most new and inexpensive DVD players and computers (Mac or PC) with DVD players can. So check your DVD players guide before purchasing. If you have an old DVD player that does not play PAL and would like to enjoy these DVDs do yourself a favor and buy a new and inexpensive DVD player. I bought a phillip for $30 at Best Buy that plays these DVDs.
In my review I will assume that the person who is interested in what the video is about will already have some capoeira background on the names of some of the movements and other aspects of capoeira. My intent is not on teaching or explaining capoeira but to cover what is in this video.
This is one of the five DVD's that director and producer Christophe Diez has produced on capoeira. `100% Reginoal' explores the regional style of capoeira by showing clips of rodas and interviews of mestres. It is also part of a box set title `Capoeira 3 DVD Box Set' that includes `Basic Techniques of Capoeira,' and `Rodas De Capoeira.' These two videos are also sold separately.
The interviews are of the following mestre or advanced students of those mestre; mestre Elias, mestre Tony Barras, mestre Claudio, Torneiro, Christina, and Gly. The interviews are simple. In the first interviews the mestres talk about their backgrounds, who they learn capoeira from, and how capoeira affected their lives. The other students give similar talks as well.
Most of the video consists of clips of rodas of regional. The camera work is excellent. The clips pan back and forth from different angles and rodas. This keeps the pace up of the video and the viewer's interest. The camera is focused and held steady. I have seen some shaky videos of other capoeira DVD or VHS.
There is a bonus section in which the DVD follows one roda that is performed inside. There are several camera angels, one right behind the bateria, one at the end of the roda and another from side to side. Who ever did the editing did a great job. While the video pans from one camera to the other it keeps the flow of the roda as if you were watching it live. While the majority of the DVD shows clips of different rodas of about 20 seconds to a minute the bonus section just focuses on one roda so any one who is not familiar with the roda can see how people enter the roda by the bateria or by cutting in. It is also a good view of how a game is played out and how the music interacts with the game as well.
I think any one who has been playing a while will appreciate `100% Reginal' more than some one who has never heard of capoeira or just started. For those who just started capoeira I would recommend `100% Capoeira' and or `Basic Techniques of Capoeira.' As they show not only rodas but instructions and demos of basic movements and other information on capoeira that a beginner would appreciate. This is a fun entertaining video on capoeira. Other DVD's by Christophe Diez that show clips of rodas are `Rodas de Capoeira,' and `Capoeira 100% Spectacular.'
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Doesn't add too much, June 14, 2007
This review is from: Capoeira 100% Regional-D (DVD)
It's a nice DVD, but after seeing the Capoeira Rodas, it doesn't add much. The mastres are indeed showing impressive ability, but you'd see similar thing in the rodas. Their stories are not that much inspiring. You'd also hear people telling how great is Capoeira for them. But people tend to glorify their hobbies, and if you love Capoiera, it won't matter to you what great things it did or didn't do to others.
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