Customer Reviews

Samba On Your Feet (The Documentary)

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This documentary is a wonderful look at the history of Samba and what it means to natives of Brazil.
This film has nothing to do with the over sexualized media portrayal of Carnival or it's dances, but is more a discourse on how the Samba affects it's people both past and present. If you are serious about understanding samba and it's roots, you will enjoy this documentary. It also features some great live performances!

This lively film goes behind the scenes of the samba and caival world in Rio de Janeiro to reveal how the cultural clash of the African/Black and European/White cultures gave birth to a new tradition. The historian Harold Costa, an expert in carioca folklore, explains how African slaves' beliefs, gods and music mixed with Spanish Catholic and Indian influences centuries ago to create the remarkable fusion that is Brazilian culture.
The historian Haroldo Costa, an expert in carioca folklore, explains how African slaves' beliefs, gods and music mixed with Spanish Catholic centuries ago to create the remarkable fusion that is Brazilian culture.
The film includes interviews with many active performers and writers of samba such as the composer and singer Xango da Mangueira. He recalls the first days of caival in Rio de Janeiro when he and his fellow performers sang and danced in the streets but were treated like vagrants and harassed by the police. Mae Helena D'Oxosse, a priestess in the umbanda tradition, incorporates samba in her religious practices and carries on a tradition among her working-class followers that is five hundred years old.

CAST

HAROLDO COSTA: actor, producer and writer bo in Piedade, Río de Janeiro. He's been involved intensively in the cultural life of Rio de Janeiro since the early 1950's. Today, he's one of the foremost authorities in the field of carioca folklore, particularly samba and caival. XANGô da MANGUEIRA: trovadour, singer, composer; a living legend out of the early days when caival and samba met for the very first times in the streets of Rio de Janeiro. "Back then caival wasn't yet a cultural product, we were consider plain malandros good for nothing people and chased by the police of the streets" Eighty one years young Xangô remembers a bygone era while singing, with extraordinary candor, some of his favorite tunes from half a century ago. TIA SURICA: (Iranette Ferreira Barcellos) was bo in Madureira, sixty five years ago. At the age of three she was already part of Portela, one of the most prestigious samba schools from Rio. Since 1980, Surica is an active member of the Old Guard and a common reference amongst veterans and rookies alike. Her house, known as the "Cafôfo da Surica", is a fertile ground for musicians, dancers and other samba people in Rio who gather around her for advice and support. HERMINIO BELLO de CARVALHO has been defined in many occasions as a "cultural agitator". Poet, producer, composer and talent hunter; Herminio is, at age seventy, a key to understand the movement known as MPB (Popular Music Of Brazil). His name is frequently tied to those of Cartola, Pixinguinha, Nelson Cavaquinho, Carlos Cachaça, Paulinho da Viola, Elton Medeiros, Mauricio Tapajós and Clementina amongst others. MART'NÁLIA is there amongst the most accomplished interpreters and composers of her generation. Her latest accomplishment, "Pé Do Meu Samba" is already a success in Brazil and abroad. Her name is referential to musicians in Europe and the US. Her voice it's ever sweet, black, with swing and a truly gifted pitch. She has great predisposition for dancing and a body that won't give up and she also happens to be the daughter of samba legend Martinho da Vila. PAULO BARROS is a caavalesque (don't ever call him a choreographer!). He determines the motive of Unidos da Tijuca, the escola (school) de samba that he so proudly conducts. As such he organizes every creative aspect of the caival parade and it's contents, and as such will take the credit or the fall. But Paulo Barros it's no regular caavalesque in the three years that he's been leading Unidos da Tijuca he has tued caival upside sown. In many ways, Paulo Barros is a revolutionary. TERESA CRISTINA, a true carioca, one that will sing with her eyes closed in front of a wild loving audience in the night clubs of Lapa, a neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro were everything smells of samba. She was bo thirty sevens years ago, she's timid and superb. Her album A "Música de Paulinho da Viola" has shaken the roots of the establishment and that's no easy accomplishment at all. In spite of it all, Teresa doesn't seem to realize her success and reminds docile, charming so modest that it seams unreal. She's easy to find, just take a stroll on the sidewalks of Lapa and keep your ears open, her music will probably flow out of one window or the next and she'll be right there next to her husband Antonio and the magnificent band. Teresa researches her music, loves composers, loves what she does and it shows. Mãe HELENA D'OXOSSE is a priestess in the umbanda tradition. She introduces samba in her extreme religious practices and seems to carry on a tradition of five hundred years. She's one and many, sometimes even herself if not possessed by an entity that's makes her dace wildly to the drums of her churchgoers. She lives today in one of the poorest suburbs of Rio de Janeiro were she entertains lowlife and working class followers of umbanda and candomble.

SINOPSIS

Samba On Your Feet is a delightful experience, a portrait of the music behind a cultural tradition that captivated Hollywood. This outstanding documentary exposes a worldwide audience, for the first time, to the brewing scenes of caival and the turmoil of emotions that hide deep within our soul. Samba On Your Feet; roots and perspectives, flesh and ghosts, entities and divinities spread out along sidewalks and slums of Rio de Janeiro next to the voices of Cartola, Caetano Veloso, Martinho da Vila, Ismael Silva, Clara Nunes and the unforgettable Clementina. Black and white; African gods and the Holly Cross of the conquistadores; the Old Guard and the new talents blended in the same cultural basket to redefine brazilian music from a singular perspective. Xangô da Mangueira, Carlinhos de Jesus and the extravagant priestess Mae Helena D'Oxosse, talent hunter and poet Herminio Bello de Carvalho and the warmest of all hostesses Tía Surica, Mart'nália and Teresa Cristina they all gathered around to tell the untold story of samba.

Terrific look at the inner workings of a samba school. I use it for the Latin American music course I teach and students enjoy it as well.

The best I have seen so far on the complex birth of Samba and inter-racial cultural exchange in Brazil. Thank You! Great Music, by the way!

Movie arrived in great condition and it was very informative for me as a Brazilian dancer. Thank you!!!

What a joy! From the opening scene in which Mr. Costa faces the ocean pointing in the direction from which the African slaves came in the 17th century to the carefully reconstructed footage from the forties and sixties this documentary quite a trip to the roots of samba and the soul of Rio. I was surprised to find out that neither the writer nor the director were actually Brazilians themselves. A wonderful film, Caetano on stage: priceless.