The big Hollywood studio machine goes on automatic during the early months of each year. Few, if any, top films are released as the studios save their big money-makers for a big summer release to maximize their box office take and they save their nomination-worthy films for release closer to the end of the yearly calendar so those films will be remembered come award season. With that annual schedule in mind, this is a good time to discover, or re-discover, films that you might not be able to see in your local movie theater.
People around the world have many things in common. Rather than focusing on our differences - which political activists of all stripes do the world around to advance their specific agendas - focusing on our similaralities is what will serve to bring our global community closer together. Music is an international language spoken by everyone everywhere and can bridge the gaps in our understanding of other cultures.
Filmmaker David Zucker has done just that in his documentaries FOUND SOUNDS BAHIA and its companion piece, COLORS OF A CREATIVE CULTURE. Both films are a labor of love produced, directed and shot on location in Bahia, Brazil, by independent filmmaker and club DJ extraordinaire David Zucker. Both docs grew naturally out of his passion for directing and producing theatrical performances and developing social programs for teenagers. As Zucker says:
"Since the beginning of time, music has been a major social influence, affecting tradition and cultures around the world. Music, like most art, has the ability to transcend the barriers of race, religion, class, and poverty. But more importantly, music has the ability to bring people together to share in a common experience. Historically, in countries where there is a lack of material resources, people have invented a style of playing: rhythm on found objects. In Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, Found Sound is about creating exhilarating music out of material that would otherwise be thrown away. One man by the name of Jair Rezende has taken it upon himself to transform not only his community, but also the entire world through his band, LACTOMIA."
Zucker traveled around the world and in Brazil he found a young man, Jair Rezende, with an amazing vision for his community. Jair creates music and art out of trash, and it is Jair and his band, Lactomia, that Zucker follows in FOUND SOUNDS BAHIA as it is their music that also permeates COLORS OF A CREATIVE CULTURE. As UCLA Anthropologist Dr. Christopher Waterman says in FOUND SOUNDS BAHIA: "One of the things I've been interested in for a long time is the way people who live in cities, not under the best conditions, manage to still make music, even if they don't have access to imported music technology and so on... These young folks were able to take what is essentially the leftover objects of capitalism, of industry, and use them to create music and a really astonishing variety of rhythms."
Jair has done the seemingly impossible; he's brought music and art to an impoverished group of kids, many of whom live on the streets of Candeal a section of Salvador, Brazil. Bahia, Brazil. Bahia is the home of Samba Reggae (pronounced Sam-Ba Hegg-A), where the rhythms of the black Africans who were brought to Brazil by the slave trade mixed with the local rhythms of the Brazilian Samba. Jair and his band regularly take the bits and pieces of the detritus of contemporary industrial 
society and culture and re-purpose and re-fashion it all into something worthy of attention... beautifully creative music and art. Lactomia turns what people throw away into instruments and decoration, they regularly recycle things like tin cans, coffee cans, wooden packing boxes and
cardboard boxes, washboards, auto parts, bicycle parts, pots and pans, paint cans, metal pipes of different lengths, they re-head drums with easily found vinyl scraps; they use potato and flour bags instead of costly cloth for their costumes; and they use soda cans and their pull-top tabs for costume decoration.
The process of creative re-envisioning and expressive creativity shown in both documentaries is nothing short of inspiring. As is the learning experience all the kids in the band get as they not only learn about rhythms but also learn to be creative thinkers, as to them, nothing is wasted and nothing is useless and everything can become something else. As one of the musician children says in the film, "We are making music and helping the environment." What could be better than that?
You've probably heard of the Brazilian band Olodum, who played with Paul Simon on his Rhythm of the Saints recording. After Olodum, Timbalada is the most globally recognized Samba Reggae band in the world and they are wildly popular all over Brazil. Timbalada's founder and leader, Carlinhos Brown comes from Candeal and is a huge music star in Brazil and it is he that Jair went to for his blessing to help lead, arrange, and inspire the music that Lactomia plays. 
Carlinhos Brown created the name Lactomia for Jair's band. Carlinhos says "lacto" comes from the word "milk" and "mia" from the sound of a cat's meow. Carlinhos says it's a mixture of milk with a cat's meow, but to the kids in the band it's simply the sounds of the cans that they play. As one performer in the film says:"The search for recycled things and the fact of not having instruments forces you to play on a bus seat, on a parked car. It forces you to use the pots in your kitchen and the cans on the street. That is wonderful."
FOUND SOUNDS BAHIA follows the kids in Lactomia, who range in age from 6 years on up to young
adults, as they create their costumes and instruments, rehearse, and do radio interviews and public street performances to promote themselves. Having a star like Carlinhos Brown, and co-founder of Timbalada Tony Mola, on their side is priceless for these street kids, many of whom lack the basics of life. About two years after FOUND SOUNDS BAHIA was in the can Lactomia was lucky enough to be invited to perform with Timbalada and Carlinhos Brown at Lincoln Center. It's the kind of things that can change lives, and as FOUND SOUNDS BAHIA shows it changed many lives.COLORS OF A CREATIVE CULTURE was shot during the same time period as FOUND SOUNDS BAHIA and
also features the music of Lactomia and other Bahian Samba Reggae street bands. It's a riotous ride of amazing Brazilian street art, graffiti, and murals and will make you want to visit Brazil immediately with your camera in hand. The Brazilian artists featured consider public space to be their studio and their gallery and art they produce grabs the attention of the people passing by in the street. Many pieces and installations are museum-worthy. 
Producer, Writer, Director David Zucker takes you on a close-up journey to the center of the Bahian art universe... the streets of Salvador where art is closely connected to music and where everyone has access to both. While making their street art, the artists talk about their art and their connection to their culture and their sense of self and creativity. 
Screened together, the two documentaries give you a full evening of exciting and creative Brazilian music and art all brought about by an amazingly personal process of creative re-envisioning that you will be inspired by. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Watch the COLORS OF A CREATIVE CULTURE trailer at youtube
Watch the FOUND SOUNDS BAHIA trailer at youtube
Watch clips from FOUND SOUNDS BAHIA here on gather: Jair Rezende leads the street music of BANDA LACTOMIA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Support the work of Project Found Sound by buying their DVDs, click on the cover below to purchase DVDs:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Digital Dogs rating: A, a must-have for anyone who loves music and art, especially for those who have an interest in, work with, or teach about music, percussion, drumming, recycling, other cultures, kids and/or creativity.
MPAA rating: not yet rated
Running Times:
COLORS OF A CREATIVE CULTURE: 24 Minutes, with Rare Art & Interviews: 94 minutes
FOUND SONDS BAHIA: 28 Minutes, with Rare Performances & Interviews: 85 Minutes
Producers David Zucker, Director David Zucker, Screenplay David Zucker, Editor Walter Bernacca
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
© 2008 by Digital Dogs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
--- Digital Dogs is gather's Los Angeles Movie Correspondent ---
Digital Dogs' column, HOLLYWOOD POV, published every Thursday to Gather Essentials: Movies is an insider's look at the art, people, and product of Hollywood.
Digital Dogs is an opinionated writer, editor, and digital designer who lives and works in the entertainment capital of the world. DigiDogs writes critiques, opinion pieces, and news stories that focus on the business, people, and places of Hollywood. DigiDogs' unique film reviews are usually written well before a film's release date, and definitely worth the advance look at the films that influence the world.
You can find all of Digital Dogs' HOLLYWOOD POV columns by using the unique tag of "digidogs" or "hollywood pov." Keep up with Digital Dogs' other postings and Gather activity by joining their Gather network -- just click here - digitaldogs.gather.com - and select the orange "Connect" button on the left-hand side of the page. To see a complete listing of articles by Digital Dogs, click here.
You'll find Digital Dogs and other Movie Correspondents, plus celebrity content and plenty of other movie buffs at Movies.gather.com
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
recommend
Facebook
Twitter
bookmark 
email
print
Comments: 3
Perfect quote to demonstrate what your Review reveals:
"Since the beginning of time, music has been a major social influence, affecting tradition and cultures around the world. Music, like most art, has the ability to transcend the barriers of race, religion, class, and poverty. But more importantly, music has the ability to bring people together to share in a common experience." ~ from ~ HOLLYWOOD POV: Two Fascinating Documentaries Out Now on DVD: "Found Sounds Bahia" and "Colors Of A Creative Culture" - © 2008 by Digital Dogs
So great to see a review of something that's not a blockbuster - and for those of us who are touched by African and diaspora music, DVD's like this are a goldmine.
Thanks
I just wanted to stop by since I am finally going through what is now listed as under 4,300 pieces of gather new mail that is sitting in my inbox on here.
With that mentioned I just came across either a mailing from you yourself, or someone else brought this piece to my attention. You or they felt that your creation should be shared with the gather community, which I am very glad that it was passed on to me to view. So I wanted to say Thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to publish it here on gather for us to all view. :o)
As well before I leave you I wanted to wish you a Happy New Year... in 2009 :o)