Rhythmic Uprising

Insurreição Rítmica

(USA , Brazil, 2008, 65 mins)

digital video

U.S. Premiere

art director: Andy Taray
executive producer: Gregory Swingle
co-producer: Eliciana Nascimento, Paulo Rogério Nunes
research coordinator: Keiko Tamura

• www.rhythmicuprising.org

The celebrated Afro-Brazilian region of Bahia is known for its vibrant dance and music groups. This film is a look behind the scenes of those carnaval spectacles to see how local cultural leaders utilize these arts to change lives. Bahia is home to the largest concentration of African descendants outside of Africa. Brazil's blacks have used Afro-Brazilian cultural conventions to maintain their African heritage and to resolve poverty, racism, and oppression over the last four centuries. As freed-slave communities called quilombos did during the time of slavery, cultural leaders featured in the film are rejecting the racist, unbalanced power structures of modern Brazilian society by organizing their own communities. They cultivate social institutions based on equality and African heritage that function as a refuge for at-risk black youth. In contrast to larger Brazilian society, these groups empower and encourage their youth to pursue brighter futures. Featured in this film are a female drum corps named DiDá, a circus troupe heavily rooted in Afro-Brazilian expressions named Circo Picolino, a theater group that portrays African myths named Bejé Eró, and a Capoeira Angola association named ACANNE. Historical Afro-Brazilian cultural conventions featured in the film include capoeira, candomblé, quilombos, afoxês, and blocos afros.

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