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.
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Marcio DebellianDirector(The Wind Outside)
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Marcio DebellianWriter(The Wind Outside); The Enchanted Word
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Diana VasconcellosWriterChico, um artista brasileiro; Vinicius
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Daniel NogueiraProducer(The Wind Outside)
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Marcio DebellianProducer(The Wind Outside); The Enchanted Word
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Maria BethâniaKey Cast
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Caetano VelosoKey Cast
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Chico BuarqueKey Cast
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Mabel VellosoKey Cast
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Leandro VieiraKey Cast
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Project Title (Original Language):Fevereiros
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Project Type:Documentary, Feature
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Genres:Documentary, Music, Portrait, Ethnology, Religion
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Runtime:1 hour 14 minutes 40 seconds
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Completion Date:September 20, 2017
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Production Budget:150,000 USD
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Country of Origin:Brazil
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Country of Filming:Brazil
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Language:Portuguese
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
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19th Festival do Rio (Rio de Janeiro Int'l Film Festival)Rio de Janeiro
Brazil
October 12, 2017
Brazilian Première
Retratos (non-competitive) -
MIMOOlinda
Brazil
November 17, 2017 -
11th AtlantidocAtlantida
Uruguay
December 8, 2017 -
31st FIPABiarritz
France
January 26, 2018
European Premiere -
36th International Film Festival of UruguayMontevideo
Uruguay
March 30, 2018
JURI SPECIAL MENTION -
20th Festival du Cinéma Brésilien de ParisParis
France
April 15, 2018 -
1st Congo Brazilian Film FestivalKinshasa
Congo, the Democratic Republic of the
April 6, 2018 -
49th Visions du RéelNyon
Switzerland
Media Library -
10th In-EditSão Paulo
Brazil
June 16, 2018
BEST MOVIE -
13th CineOP - Mostra de Cinema de Ouro PretoOuro Preto
Brazil
June 17, 2018 -
FOCAL - Festival Ouvert sur les Caraïbes et l'Amérique LatineNice
France
June 6, 2018 -
Muestra de Cine Brasileño 2018México
Mexico
June 20, 2018 -
MIMOPorto and Amarante
Portugal
July 15, 2018 -
1st Mostra do Cinema do Brasil em LisboaLisbon
Portugal
July 16, 2018 -
14th SANFIC - Santiago International Film FestivalSantiago
Chile
August 1, 2018 -
In-EditBelo Horizonte
Brazil
September 14, 2018 -
Inffinito Brazilian Film FestivalMiami
United States
September 14, 2018
USA Premiere -
In-EditBarcelona
Spain
October 12, 2018 -
Embassy of Brazil in RomeRome
Italy
October 17, 2018 -
Bari Brazil Cine FestBari and Metara
Italy
October 19, 2018 -
Festival Gorée Cinéma – Afro-brazilian cycleLa Gorée
Senegal
October 20, 2018 -
34th CineuropaSantiago de Compostela
Spain
November 5, 2018 -
Festival FILMAR en América LatinaGeneve
Switzerland
November 10, 2018
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
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.