Most interesting for us, the film makers, was the fact that some of us had never met.  After working for months on the post production on the Oregon coast I finally met the Portland/Brazilian crew; Ben, our cinematographer and Cosmos, our director.  I finally saw the men whose work I had for so long admired, ingested and edited.  Ri and Renee, the post production director and producer respectively, met Ben for the first time.  Ben and Cosmos met Brian the musician.  We had all become intimate with each other’s work, and finally face to face we laughed, drank and talked amazed at the strange trajectory a film project may take.

What really made the event complete was the presence and performance of the Capoeira group, CTE CAPOEIRAGEM from Portland and Eugene.  Their roda at 8^th and Willamette, right smack in the middle of the Celebration was fantastic.  Complete with berimbau and drums they exhibited joy and technique and were admired by curious onlookers.  All thanks… and long live the Eugene CTE CAPOEIRAGEM under their teacher Contre-Mestre Dilaho at the Core Star Cultural Center in Eugene.

The Eugene Celebration’s Film Festival, our premier, and the whole experience would not have been possible without the wonderful work of the festivals director, Katina, and the exhibition director Heather Figi.  Their expert coordination of events made it all happen, and their appreciation of film is appreciated.

Owing to the success of doing this event with the CTE CAPOEIRAGEM of Eugene and Portland, we are offering the film as fundraisers for various Capoeira groups… and through this begin to get the film out to the larger world.

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This is a translation from the portuguese review at Portal Capoeira.

During the last decades, we have noticed a significant increase in the production of fiction films and documentaries featuring Capoeira. To be honest, the presence of Capoeira in motion pictures of all sorts is nothing new, even though, in the past, it had been mostly limited to national productions and correlated to other themes of Afro-Brazilian culture. It’s no surprise that the production of films featuring Capoeira would eventually reach other continents, given the process of globalization that Capoeira has been through over the years and the appropriation of the art by the cultural industry. One good example is the Hollywood production, Only the Strong, released in 1993 and premiered in Brazil under the suggestive title Esporte Sangrento (Bloody Sport). As a worldwide phenomenon, the film reached young men and women all over the planet and inspired a whole generation to start practicing Capoeira.

In spite of what movies such as Only the Strong have done to popularize Capoeira on a global scale, what we find really interesting about films featuring Capoeira and other expressions of Brazilian popular culture is their ability to produce an esthetics of performance full of tropical exoticism, which has been constantly re-invented over the years. For instance, where would Samba be today without the prominent figure of Carmén Miranda, who helped project the music style beyond Brazilian borders, conferring it the status of one of the symbols of our national identity. During the 1930s, Miranda participated in two important films, A Voz do Carnaval and Banana da Terra, in which she sings the famous song, O que é que a Baiana tem? (What does the Baiana have?), by Dorival Caymi. The same happened with the Tango, for instance, which had its Argentineaness reinforced through the films of Carlos Gardel, during the first half of the XX century.

Samba and Tango are good examples of how the phonographic and cinematographic industries have converged to exploit and promote symbols of popular culture, bringing audiences to the theaters, on the one hand, and selling records, on the other. Thanks to its ambiguous character – a blend of martial-arts, dance and music – it has been no different with Capoeira. Judgments aside, it’s nothing new to say that the arts in general have used Capoeira and other expressions of Brazilian popular culture as elements of artistic exploitation, at the same time that they re-invented a new esthetics of these cultural forms. Need some examples? Just take a look at the paintings of Carybé and the photography of Pierre Verger.

As for the film industry, we could point out a number of national and international productions featuring Capoeira as their flagship: Vadiação, Dança de Guerra, Cordão de Ouro, Only the Strong, A Capoeira Iluminada, Mandinga in Manhatam, and Besouro, to name a few. Fly Away Beetle appears in the sequence of these films. In a way, it is an extension of all of them, especially those in documentary format, even though it seems to pull back from traditional documentary style.

The film brings the testimony of three renowned masters, Boca Rica, Olavo dos Santos and Cobra Mansa. It also shows the true story of Roque Batista, a young men living on the streets of Salvador, Bahia, who turns to Capoeira in order to save himself from destitution. The story is not at all unknown for us, capoeiristas: Capoeira as a tool for self-transformation and for bettering one’s life, and the strong connection of the art with the magical city of Salvador da Bahia, Mecca of Capoeira and epicenter of Afro-Brazilian culture.

Besides the renowned masters, Roque Batista and two of his young Capoeira students, Fly Away Beetle also features other characters which, in spite of not having a particular identity in the documentary, perform a very important role for the underlying discourse of the film. We are speaking of the capoeiristas which during the action shots perform blows and acrobatic moves in typical Contemporary Capoeira style. The exposure of the half-naked bodies and the urban/natural scenario of Salvador highlight a tropical-mulatto type of aesthetics. Most of these scenes take place outdoors, at some of the famous sights of the city and in public spaces, where kids play soccer, the baianas sell their products and Capoeira coexists.

Within the broader context of the film, the above scenes contrast with the testimonies of the older masters who, through their own stories and memories, take us back to a time when Capoeira was persecuted, devalued, marginalized and despised by society. It is through this correlation between beautiful Capoeira shots and the crude reality of its early stages – expressed though the testimonies of mestres Olavo and Boca Rica – that Fly Away Beetle presents us with a paradox and, certainly, what the film has of most important. A practice developed by enslaved Africans in Brazil and their descendants – just like Samba and other cultural practices not long ago derogatorily classified as “negroes’ pastimes” – completes its transition between opposite extremes. Capoeira is no longer seen by the elite as “one of the indications of our inferiority as a people”. It has reached the artistic scene and become one of the symbols of our national identity. Nonetheless, it is through the story of Roque Batista that Fly Away Beetle reminds us that, even though Capoeira has reached Hollywood, the Afro-Brazilian population continues to be confined to poverty, destitution and marginality, needy of social projects or of a “lifeline” such as Samba, Football and Capoeira to save them from social exclusion.

Additionally, it is worth mentioning the parallel between Fly Away Beetle and the myth of Besouro Preto or Black Beetle – the magical Capoeirista who would turn into a beetle and fly away whenever in trouble. The legend of Besouro recently reached the screens of theaters in Brazil with the film Besouro. Besouro takes place in the old Bahia, and it introduces us to mestre Alípio who, just like Olavo, Boca Rica and Cobra Mansa, represents the figure of the old master, keeper of the traditions and master of Besouro. In the film/myth, Besouro spends most of his time in the wild tropical forest, where he encounters the spirits of nature and Afro-Brazilian Candomblé. The Besouro of Fly Away Beetle is Roque Batista, and its wild forest is the urban jungle of Salvador, full of dangers which can lead one into social disorder, chaos and marginalization. Roque’s magical element of metamorphosis of man into insect is Capoeira; magical, black, racially mixed, tropical, ancestral, and ritualized in a world ever more secularized.

In spite of such obvious deconstruction, it is important to emphasize that Capoeira has indeed made a great contribution to social projects with the objective of promoting the social inclusion of Afro-Brazilians and the strengthening of their self-esteem. Roque Batista is just one of the many Afro-Brazilians to whom Capoeira has given life, either because he left behind a possible tragic end to become one of the disseminators of the art, or because Capoeira has enabled the cinema to reconstruct his narrative on screen.

The conversion of popular culture into an aesthetic object is a magic that the cinema knows how to do well, especially when sweetened by the no less mystical Capoeira of modern times. It’s no surprise that the European premiere of Fly Away Beetle took place in two great post-colonial metropolises, Lisbon and London, where global audiences consume what is produced in the periphery of the world. After all, Roque and Roll are global products.

Ricardo “Cangaceiro” Nascimento is a geographer, Master in Sociology of Culture, Capoeira instructor, and is currently completing a PhD in Anthropology at the University of Lisbon.

We are proud to announce that the US Premiere of Fly Away Beetle will be happening in our ‘hometown’, Eugene Oregon as part of the Eugene Celebration!

The film will be screening for FREE at the beautiful Hult Center Center, and the entire filmmaking crew will be there to discuss the project with you. Don’t miss it! August 27, 6:30pm

US Premiere of Capoeira: Fly Away Beetle – Cosmos Corbin, Documentary. Three world-renowned Capoeira masters, along with rare old footage and modern exhibitions of Capoeira, tell the stories and the connections of the art form to slavery. African Candomble and magic are discovered as tales of the legendary Besouro (the flying Capoeirista) aquaint us with a mystical and enigmatic figure, as much legendary as historical, who mastered the arts of African magic. Q&A with Filmmakers: Renee Slade, Producer; Cosmos Corbin, Director; Ri Stewart, Co-Director; Ben Garvey, Cinematographer; Brian McWhorter, Composer

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Related show

• Artist: Fly Away Beetle Screening
• Date: Saturday, August 27th 2011
• Time: 6:30pm
• City: Fly Away Beetle Screening in Eugene Oregon
• Venue: The Eugene Celebration – Hult Center
• Address: 1 Eugene Center
• Venue phone: 541-681-4108
• Country: United States
• Admission: FREE!
• Notes: US Premiere of Capoeira: Fly Away Beetle – Three world-renowned Capoeira masters, along with rare old footage and modern exhibitions of Capoeira, tell the stories and the connections of the art form to slavery. African Candomble and magic are discovered as tales of the legendary Besouro (the flying Capoeirista) aquaint us with a mystical and enigmatic figure, as much legendary as historical, who mastered the arts of African magic. Q&A with Filmmakers: Renee Slade, Producer; Cosmos Corbin, Director; Ri Stewart, Co-Director; Ben Garvey, Cinematographer; Brian McWhorter, Composer
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Three world renowned masters tell of the oppressive conditions during and after slavery which shaped their unique artform of Capoeira.

Taking you inside the lives of these three men, this animated and colourful picture weaves between interviews, rare old footage and modern exhibitions to share the violence of Capoeira’s early days, the ritualistic and rhythmic music of the Berimbau, and the modern social benefits of Capoeira for a youth in troubled times.

The evening will feature a live Capoeira performance at 7.30pm, directly followed by the documentary, plus a post-screening discussion with Producer Márcio de Abreu.

To my surprise, those guys were just as interested in learning about Capoeira as they were excited about capturing beautiful action shots. There was a genuine enthusiasm by the crew in hearing about the historical, social and cultural aspects of Capoeira which kept on stimulating me to get more and more involved with the project. It’s been five long years since I met Cosmos Corbin, Ben Garvey and Matt Lockhart, and now, with the help of Bluedot Productions, Fly Away Beetle (FAB) is finally ready for its first appearance.

Co-producing FAB has given me the opportunity to help express through film one aspect of Capoeira which has always touched my heart: its ability to change one’s life. For this reason, we have decided to do FAB’s World Premiere in association with spaces, organizations and events which are committed to exploring Capoeira’s potential for positive social and cultural transformation. As a capoeirista myself, I couldn’t be more excited to participate in events such as the Movement for Change Capoeira Conference, in London, and the Gingando para Cidadania, in Lisbon. Both conferences will bring together capoeiristas, intellectuals, artists and people from all kinds of backgrounds who will get together to exchange knowledge, discuss possibilities and, of course, play lots of Capoeira. I am really proud to be able to present FAB in those conferences.

Fly Away Beetle is one of those films that are able to nicely blend beautiful images, emotional moments and a powerful message.  Without a doubt, there will be capoeiristas flipping up in the air, with the ocean on the background. But be also ready to meet on the big screen some of my friends and heroes, and to hear their stories and how Capoeira have changed their lives. I hope to see you there!

Márcio de Abreu.

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Between June 30 and the 3rd of July, the city of London will be hosting The Capoeiragem Conference 2011. As its first edition, the conference will be a tribute to two of the greatest Capoeira masters still alive: Mestre João Grande and Mestre Gato.

Co-Producer Marcio Abreu, and Cinematographer Ben Garvey will be representing the film making team, and conducting a Question and Answer session after the World Premiere.

Mestre João Grande was born in Bahia, in 1933, and was one of the main students of the legendary Mestre Pastinha, also known as the guardian of the traditions of Capoeira Angola. In 1995, he received a Honorary Doctorate Degree of Humane Letters from Upsala College, in New Jersey, and in 2001 he was awarded the National Heritage Fellowship from the NEA, which is one of the most prestigious awards given to practitioners of traditional arts in the US. Mestre João Grande currently lives in New York City. He has given an invaluable contribution to the process of revitalization of Capoeira Angola in Brazil and to the spread of this art throughout the world.

Mestre Gato is one of the founder members of Grupo Senzala de Capoeira whose rootsare in Rio de Janeiro since 1963. Mestre Gato beyond being a well known capoeirista by the end of the sixties is one of the core members of the group who developed a Capoeira teaching method that influenced most of the contemporary capoeira training. Grupo Senzala kept a strong connection with the old guard masters from Bahia and Rio de Janeiro initially with Mestres Bimba and Pastinha and later with Mestres João Pequeno and João Grande, Paulo dos Anjos, Decânio and others from Salvador and Artur Emídio, Leopoldina and others from Rio de Janeiro. Mestre Gato has been teaching in UK since 1989.

Both Masters will be present at the Capoeiragem Conference 2011, giving Capoeira workshops and sharing their life experiences with participants of the event. The event will also feature a lecture about the Angolan roots of Capoeira as a presentation of a research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and conducted by Dr. Matthias Rodrigues Assunção, professor of the University of Essex and author of the book Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art.

In addition, the Capoeiragem Conference 2011 will also fundraise for BIDNA Capoeira, a charitable organisation that uses Capoeira as a tool to help children in the Middle East. The intrinsic value of Capoeira as an instrument for positive self-transformation is now recognized all over the world. On that same note, the launch of the Capoeiragem Conference 2011 will be hosted by the Canning House with the World Premier of the documentary-film Fly Away Beetle, by Bluedot Productions.

Fly Away Beetle was shot in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, in 2006. The film features three world renowned masters (Olavo dos Santos, Boca Rica, and Cobra Mansa) who tell of the oppressive conditions during and after slavery which shaped the unique art form of Capoeira. Sharing radically different views their focuses range from the violence of Capoeira’s early days, to the modern social benefits of Capoeira for a youth in troubled times. The documentary also tells the true story of Roque Batista, a young man who lived under bridges on the streets of Salvador and who turned to Capoeira in order to save himself from destitution.

Weaving between interviews, rare old footage, and modern exhibitions of Capoeira, the film tells the stories of these people. In so doing, connections to slavery, Candomblé and magic are discovered. Tales of the legendary Besouro Preto (Black Beetle – the flying Capoeirista) acquaint us with a mystical and enigmatic figure, as much legend as historical, who mastered the arts of African magic.

The Capoeiragem Conference 2011 is being hosted by Kabula Arts  in partnership with other Capoeira groups from the city of London, UK and Bassula Capoeira Originals. The event will serve as a meeting point for the European Capoeira community, functioning as a perfect platform for exchanging knowledge, experience and, of course, lots of Capoeira!

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Related show

• Artist: Fly Away Beetle Screening
• Date: Thursday, June 30th 2011
• City: Fly Away Beetle Screening in London
• Venue: The Capoeiragem Conference 2011
• Address: 2 Belgrave Square
• Venue phone: +44 (0)20 7235 2303
• Country: United Kingdom
• Notes: Join Co-Producer Marcio Abreu for our World Premier of Fly Away Beetle at the Movement for Change Conference
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