Samba opus 1 - Rio, le conservatoire de la samba

1998 , 52′ , couleur , documentaire
Réalisation : Yves Billon. Production : les films du Village, RFO, M6. Participation : CNC, ministère des Affaires étrangères, ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (DAI), Procirep.

As an opening, the New Year’s Eve fireworks that light up thousands of Sambistas on Copacabana beach. The daughter of streets, beaches and favelas, and the emblematic music and dance of the Brazilian people, samba was invented at the turn of the 20th century by the descendants of slaves from Bahia. Long viewed with suspicion, it was gentrified and sophisticated by assuming new forms, “choro” or bossa-nova.

Groups of percussionists and dancers accompanying each other by hitting on sticks, brotherhoods celebrating the Afro-Brazilian rituals of “candomblé”, elaborate ballroom dances, songs known to all or improvised, in concert halls or open-air cafés, samba assumes the many faces of Brazilian musical art. In Rio de Janeiro, samba schools form the largest conservatory of popular music and poetry in the world. The weekly rehearsals, which prepare the carnival’s parade and competition, unite the crowd of dancers, percussionists, composers, dressmakers and choreographers. As from Friday evening, all year round, the “pagodes”, informal meetings of Sambistas, bring life to the neighbourhoods…

Source : Anaïs Brosaïc