In 1944, to escape Nazi persecution, the Yiddish poet Abraham Sutzkever was forced to cross a minefield with his wife. To do this, they moved in anapestic rhythm (two short and one long syllable) and also in amphibrach rhythm (one long syllable between two short), walking one kilometer to survive and tell this story.

How can we cross this minefield called Brazil?

short, short, long and sometimes, short, long, short was shot in the Carioca neighborhood Tijuca, in front of the wall of the First Battalion of the Army Police, where civilians were detained during the military dictatorship.

What to do in front of a wall? How to infiltrate this wall? The anapestic poetic feet – short, short, long – and the amphibrach feet – short, long, short – can be associated with the march and samba rhythms, respectively. Sliding from march to samba seemed a good starting point. Let the choro music sound and the hiccup of syncope swing. From march to tap dance, from the military parades to the hoofers, whose metal-soled shoes resound on the asphalt. The black plastic, in which those in Brazil who die nameless are wrapped, also symbolizes a turbulent sea in a child’s play and in Fellini’s movie Il Casanova. The Old Way style of the Vogue movement was inspired, deviated and danced with the moves and postures of the soldiers. What was soldered, fixed, came into motion. Dragging on the ground with help of the elbows is part of military training and, according to the poet Michaux, it is also a posture that can make the soul swim.

Water dropping day by day wears the hardest rock away. We spent days and days there, navigating daily and repeatedly in front of this long wall that led us to an intersection, which we later nicknamed “return island”. Still at the foot of the wall, we found what was once the Maracanã River, today a kind of open sewer supported by a containment footbridge located slightly below street level and nicknamed “subsoil” by us. There we found our triangle, that is, the three points that outline this journey, which celebrates the force of poetics and its power to displace. To go out of oneself. From the place. Of the enchainment. And jump. And fly. And return. And revolt. And turn. And return. And navigate. Because in Rio’s climate, who can hold one’s own.

The fighting play is also an enchantment play. We survive in battles and persist in mandinga. Thus, other forms of political struggle emerge. From Ifá to the wisdom of the old Cumbas in the diaspora, we are taught the lesson that for each demand of life there is a poem to be crossed as a possibility.

Luiz Antonio Simas e Luiz Rufino,
Fire in the bush: the enchanted science of macumbas

Sep 24 | 8PM (GMT -3)
Watch here (soon)

CREDITS

Conception and Direction Marcela Levi & Lucía Russo
Performance Alexei Henriques, Anani Sereia Cosmos, Buth Cazul, Dani Lima, Denise Stutz, Esther Weitzman, João Victor Cavalcante, Juliete Buraco Negro Cosmos, Laura Samy, Lua Império, Lucas “Lola” Matéria Escura Cosmos, Lucía Russo, Marcela Levi, Maria Alice Poppe, Mari Lua Cosmos, Martim Gueller, Samuel Raposa Cosmos, Tamires Costa, Wallandra Cazul, Washington Silva
Camera Renato Mangolin
Additional câmera Lucía Russo
Artistic interlocution Felipe Ribeiro
Editing Lucía Russo, Marcela Levi e Renato Mangolin
Sound design Lucía Russo, Marcela Levi e Martim Gueller
Consultancy for direct sound recording Bruno Rezende e Diogo Perdigão
Transport Valmir Fretes e Mudanças e Gino Bezerra da Silva
Accountant JOPEC
Aknowledgments Adela Stoppel, Anízio Severino dos Santos, Bruno Rezende, Carlos Gueller, Claudio Machado Ferreira, Daiane Almeida, Daniel Luhmann, Erica Stoppel, Ginetta Levi Mortera, Iara Gueller, Jesualdo de Castro do Nascimento, Julio Antônio Filho, Lucas Fonseca, Sérgio Rezende

Music

Bruno Tucunduva Ruviaro, Pós Tudo 3 (empréstimo musical de Construção de Chico Buarque e Toccata de Prokofiev)
Chant Buth Cazul
E. Satie, Cinéma: Entr’acte symphonique de Relâche
Henry LeTang, Tap challenge Stop-time piano
H. Villa-Lobos, Danças Características Africanas 2: Kankukus
I. Stravinsky, Sagração da Primavera
Jacob do Bandolim, Santa Morena
J. S. Bach, Courante da Suíte Francesa No. 5
J. S. Bach, Prelúdio VI do Cravo Bem Temperado (Livro 2)
L. V. Beethoven, Sinfonia No. 7 Primeiro Movimento
L. Bonfá, Manhã de Carnaval (Black Orpheus)
S. Prokofiev, Marcha da ópera “The Love for Three Oranges”

Drawing Lucía Russo

Poem
Henri Michaux, A Preguiça, versão em português de Margarida Vale de Gato | Laziness, english version by Richard Ellmann

Quotations

Em redor do buraco tudo é beira (2009), Marcela Levi
grrRoUNd (2021), Marcela Levi & Lucía Russo
Harm-ony (2018), Marcela Levi & Lucía Russo
Mordedores (2015), Marcela Levi & Lucía Russo
Natureza Monstruosa (2011), Marcela Levi & Lucía Russo

Production Improvável Produções