Tudo Bem Productions

I am sitting in my new apartment in the sun room looking out at the Bay of Salvador (Bay of Santos) to the island of Itaparica, which is the biggest island in the bay. In other words – my new apartment is sweet. Light pours in all day and there is a view of the water from 3 of the rooms. Granted – its totally falling apart as well –needs a paint job, a new fridge, stove and some general upgrading. But the neighborhood is much cooler than barra where I was living. That area was super touristy and pricey and I got sick of all the euros and hearing American accents. Also, there was nothing to do there at night. I am now in the neighbhorhood of Dois de Julio which is definitely more “de povo” (of the people) which of course means less expensive and more interesting. Its also extremely brasilian with fruit, veggie, meat and fish stands operating all day, and baracas serving beer and charascuro all night. The apartment that I am in is in owned by a locoura French woman who speaks Portuguse and some English really fast and with such a thick French accent that I cant understand her in either language. Although this morning we had a conversation in Portuguese that went fairly well. She talks a lot so which is great Portuguese practice for me. And I discovered yesterday while moving in that my new cool amiga Jackie is renting a place next store for three weeks. She is a beautiful Ghanian woman who grew up in Germany, lives in London and is trying to go to school here in salvador. last night she cooked me a delish gahnian dish called "red red" that consisted of dried camarao, tomatoes, onions, peppers sauteed in palm oil over rice with plantains. now i have to cook her a typical american meal. she said she wants corn bread, fried chicken and macaroni and cheese.
Its interesting that all of the places that Ive stayed at – apartment in barra, pousadah in cachoeria and now here – are owned by women. You definitely see that the women here are taking care of business. And I don’t know if that is a result of the sexism that pervades this country where men are often sitting out drinking cerveja and hitting on women while the women are supporting are taking care of the kids. Brasil is known to have less “machismo” than other Latin American countries and be more open and fluid around sexuality. I think that’s true but the system of patriarchy is still evident.
However, one of the most important places of power for women, especially black women is in the religion of candomble. And one of the areas where candomble is muito forte is in Cachoeria where I have been shooting my documentary for the last 2 weeks. I left Salvador to go up there on August 6th. The week before I left I was anxious and nervous about the shoot, about moving and about my time here being half-way done. I was frustrated with my language progress and the difficulty of making brasilian friends. I arrived in Cachoeria on a Sunday and was immediately remembered as the Americano who is doing the documentary about the Festa da Boa Morte. Folks remembered me from when I was there doing interviews in june and were incredibly friendly. That is save for one person . but we’ll get to that later. Best of all – it was pretty much all Portuguese all the time. So for my first week I was dealing with figuring out what I needed to shoot, who I was going to interview and what events we wanted to make sure we didn’t miss. Annie (who’s last name I changed to ‘thank god you’re here’) arrived on Thursday and we began shooting the next day and basically didn’t stop until the next Saturday. Annie was awesome, has a great eye and is such a trooper. It was also totally fun hanging out and I swear I couldn’t have done it without her. She made me laugh, helped me with the language, and while drinking three reis caparhinhas at night (shout out to ruebens at the Hotel Convento), helped me figure out the story I am trying to tell. The shoot was a typical documentary shoot – exhausting, frustrating, inspiring and infuriating. My big accomplishment is that I was able to conduct the interviews in Portuguese without a translator, which was pretty exciting. Unfortunately, our biggest barrier was the gatekeeper for Irmandade de Boa Morte (they are the sisterhood who put on the Festa every year) who I knew was not into me doing this documentary when I met with her a few months ago. This time around she decided she didn’t like me and proceeded to make our life hellish. But we decided that the name of our company is Tudo Bem Productions and we would do all that we can and then leave it at that. And we had a lot of helpful folks along the way as well. One great thing is that Cachoeria is so friggin’ quaint and beautiful that it’s a pleasure to shoot there and the footage looks beautiful. Annie and I are hoping to edit a piece before our time here is through which means I may spend some time in Rio, where Annie is based , editing the footage. This means my next couple of months I will be preparing for that big time.

Tchau

I have hit my four-month mark and am amazed how fast time has gone. Yesterday I filmed at the Fórum Social Nordestino – a local forum modeled on the World Social Forums that have taken place all over the world. This one specifically addressed issues in the Northeast of Brasil (this is where Bahia is located. It’s the poorest state in the country). I went to meeting of activists working on the issues of quilmobos which are communities located all over brasil that were started by runaway slaves and have maintained a strong history of resistance and tradition. There is a huge struggle right now in Brazil over the quilombos which are under threat from large landowners (fazendeiros) and other companies that want their land. Many of the quilbombos are trying to get title to their land so that they can be declared the legal owners but they have to undergo a lengthy process proving that they are indeed the descendants of slaves. Today I go up to Cachoeira and stay until the end of the month. I will do most of my filming during this time – filming the Festa da morte, more interviews with the Sisters, townspeople etc. My colleague and friend Annie is coming up from Rio and will shoot the festa for me which is awesome. I’m very happy not to have to be a one-man band (shooting, producing, and interviewing). When I come back I will be moving (new neighborhood, less expensive, less touristy) so things feel a little in flux but even when your living abroad change is inevitable.
The new food discovery this month – cenouras (carrots)! Incredible -.Sweet, almost perfumey and a beautiful orangey, yellow color.
I will say tchau for now –Cachoeria is still on dial-up and internet is mush less accessible. Tenha um bom agosto! Muito saudade.