The African presence in Brazilian music manifests itself in different ways. If in 1966, Baden Powell “Rio-fied” candomblé with the Afro-sambas he composed with Vinícius de Moraes, half a century later we experienced an unprecedented moment with the arrival of musicians from different African countries in the metropolis of São Paulo. In the film Afro-Sampas we see what can happen when musicians from both sides of the Atlantic are brought into contact in the city where they live. Yannick Delass (Democratic Republic of Congo), Edoh Fiho (Togo), Lenna Bahule (Mozambique), and the Brazilians Ari Colares, Chico Saraiva and Meno del Picchia accept our invitation to a first meeting in which they share sounds, memories and creativity.
Afro-Sampas is part of a 5 year research project, coordinated by the film’s two directors, called ‘Being/Becoming African in Brazil: African musics and heritages’. This project is funded by FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation), and is part of a larger academic project in Brazil entitled ‘Local Musicking: new pathways for ethnomusicology’. The project’s objective is to analyse the creative African diaspora in Brazil. In this film, we promote musical encounters between African musicians with whome we have been working since 2016 and Brazilian musicians who live and work in São Paulo. They share sounds, memories and creativity, exploring both musical and social issues in their encounters.
Musicians interviewed:
Yannick Delass
Meno Del Picchia
Lenna Bahule
Edoh Fiho
Ari Colares
Chico Saraiva
Direction, cameras and research:
Jasper Chalcraft
Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji
Edição e cor:
Ricardo Dionisio
Direct Sound:
Jasper Chalcraft
Ricardo Dionisio
Mixing and Mastering:
Jean Nands
Ewelter Rocha
3rd place in the category Ethnographic Film - Mid-Length at the 2022 Pierre Verger Awards, organized by ABA (Brazil, 2022), selected for the Portuguese Association of Anthropology film show (Portugal, 2022), received the award for best feature film at the 44th ANPOCS annual meeting (Brazil, 2020) and screened in the UK at the Africa in Motion festival.