Februaries

Mangueira is Brazil’s most popular samba school. In 2016, it won the championship of the Carnival of Rio with a parade honoring Maria Bethânia, the diva from Bahia, who has a 50-year career and is Caetano Veloso’s sister. The doc followed the creation of this carnival in all stages, from the first drawings and rehearsals to the construction of the allegories and the winning parade. Our crew also traveled with Maria Bethânia to Santo Amaro, her hometown in the interior of Bahia, discovering particularities that inspired the creation of this Carnival, such as her peculiar religious universe, which congregates candomble and Catholicism, the parties inherited from the africans, and the openness of her house to the local community.

  • Marcio Debellian
    Director
    (The Wind Outside)
  • Marcio Debellian
    Writer
    (The Wind Outside); The Enchanted Word
  • Diana Vasconcellos
    Writer
    Chico, um artista brasileiro; Vinicius
  • Daniel Nogueira
    Producer
    (The Wind Outside)
  • Marcio Debellian
    Producer
    (The Wind Outside); The Enchanted Word
  • Maria Bethânia
    Key Cast
  • Caetano Veloso
    Key Cast
  • Chico Buarque
    Key Cast
  • Mabel Velloso
    Key Cast
  • Leandro Vieira
    Key Cast
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Fevereiros
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Feature
  • Genres:
    Documentary, Music, Portrait, Ethnology, Religion
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 14 minutes 40 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 20, 2017
  • Production Budget:
    150,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Brazil
  • Country of Filming:
    Brazil
  • Language:
    Portuguese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • 19th Festival do Rio (Rio de Janeiro Int'l Film Festival)
    Rio de Janeiro
    Brazil
    October 12, 2017
    Brazilian Première
    Retratos (non-competitive)
  • MIMO
    Olinda
    Brazil
    November 17, 2017
  • 11th Atlantidoc
    Atlantida
    Uruguay
    December 8, 2017
  • 31st FIPA
    Biarritz
    France
    January 26, 2018
    European Premiere
  • 36th International Film Festival of Uruguay
    Montevideo
    Uruguay
    March 30, 2018
    JURI SPECIAL MENTION
  • 20th Festival du Cinéma Brésilien de Paris
    Paris
    France
    April 15, 2018
  • 1st Congo Brazilian Film Festival
    Kinshasa
    Congo, the Democratic Republic of the
    April 6, 2018
  • 49th Visions du Réel
    Nyon
    Switzerland
    Media Library
  • 10th In-Edit
    São Paulo
    Brazil
    June 16, 2018
    BEST MOVIE
  • 13th CineOP - Mostra de Cinema de Ouro Preto
    Ouro Preto
    Brazil
    June 17, 2018
  • FOCAL - Festival Ouvert sur les Caraïbes et l'Amérique Latine
    Nice
    France
    June 6, 2018
  • Muestra de Cine Brasileño 2018
    México
    Mexico
    June 20, 2018
  • MIMO
    Porto and Amarante
    Portugal
    July 15, 2018
  • 1st Mostra do Cinema do Brasil em Lisboa
    Lisbon
    Portugal
    July 16, 2018
  • 14th SANFIC - Santiago International Film Festival
    Santiago
    Chile
    August 1, 2018
  • In-Edit
    Belo Horizonte
    Brazil
    September 14, 2018
  • Inffinito Brazilian Film Festival
    Miami
    United States
    September 14, 2018
    USA Premiere
  • In-Edit
    Barcelona
    Spain
    October 12, 2018
  • Embassy of Brazil in Rome
    Rome
    Italy
    October 17, 2018
  • Bari Brazil Cine Fest
    Bari and Metara
    Italy
    October 19, 2018
  • Festival Gorée Cinéma – Afro-brazilian cycle
    La Gorée
    Senegal
    October 20, 2018
  • 34th Cineuropa
    Santiago de Compostela
    Spain
    November 5, 2018
  • Festival FILMAR en América Latina
    Geneve
    Switzerland
    November 10, 2018
Director Biography - Marcio Debellian

Marcio Debellian’s works and research are focused on Brazilian music and poetry, and have been presented to the public through documentaries, videos, concerts and exhibitions. He is the author of the argument and screenplay of Palavra Encantada (The Enchanted Word, 2008), a documentary that investigated the relationship between music and poetry in Brazilian culture. The film, directed by Helena Solberg and coproduced by Marcio, was exhibited in more than 50 festivals abroad and had great public response in Brazil. Most recently, he directed "(o vento lá fora)” (The wind outside) (2014), a documentary that created a portrait of the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa through the readings by professor Cleonice Berardinelli and the singer Maria Bethânia. He is also the curator and director of the Palavras Cruzadas project, which promotes encounters between musicians, poets and visual artists to create unique spectacles and performances. Learn more at www.marciodebellian.com

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

The carnival created in homage to Maria Bethânia allowed us to run through several aspects related to the region where she came from, Bahia, the place in Brazil that received the largest number of slaves from Africa. Bahia managed to mix the African, native Indian and Portuguese traditions into an original Brazilian expression towards music, religiosity and festivities. As we visit Bethania’s hometown and follow the victorious carnival of Mangueira, we go through these aspects, discovering their beauty and facing the issues that come along with them, such as prejudice and intolerance.

People might not know but the birth of samba is directly related to the religious rituals of the candomble brought to Brazil by enslaved Africans. The music played in these rituals was the base for the samba that would amuse a whole nation years later. In the beginning of the 20th century, samba was forbidden in Rio de Janeiro. Musicians were arrested when caught playing in public. The candombles made in the house of the “baianas” who came to Rio were also persecuted by the police.

When we started shooting, I obviously didn’t know Mangueira would win the carnival. It was a great surprise that gave the film a sort of “happy ending”. However, what always interested me in this story, independently from the result of carnival, was the concept of Mangueira’s parade. Mangueira could have chosen a creative way based on Maria Bethânia’s career or hits. Instead, they chose to emphasize Maria Bethânia’s devotion, her syncretism that mixes catholicism, candomble and the mythologies inherited from the Indians. One century before, the people who came from Bahia to Rio were persecuted by the police because of their music and religiosity. In 2016, Mangueira and a singer from Bahia won the carnival for the same reasons.