Three Documentary Films about Brazil and Music

I'm not much of a movie reviewer. Nonetheless, here are my thoughts on three movies I viewed recently:

Brasileirinho

A moving tribute to choro, a musical genre that predates better known Brazilian genres such as samba and bossa nova, and has a sound that is very distinct, compared to those other genres. Choro is a style that favors improvisation, though some choro hits have vocals. Some for the sake of comparison describe choro as the Brazilian equivalent of New Orleans jazz. For some odd reason, I think of Argentinian Tango too. I was captivated by this music and picked up the excellent New Old Music an album of choro classics recently recorded by Modern Traditions Ensemble.

This Is Bossa Nova: The History and Stories

A tribute to bossa nova, focusing on the musings and anecdotes of legendary songwriters Roberto Menescal and Carlos Lyra. One highlight of the film was Menescal explaining why bossa nova is such a soft style of music. The bossa nova musicians lived in thin-walled apartments, so they were forced to play softly.

Favela Rising

This is the story of Anderson Sa, a founder of Afro Reggae, an organization dedicated to promoting music and dance to at-risk youth in the favelas, the slums of Rio De Janeiro. Anderson says he was a drug dealer until his brother was killed during the infamous 1993 massacre in his home favela, Vigario Geral, in which corrupt police killed 21 favela residents. Instead of seeking revenge, Anderson co-founded Grupo Cultural Afro Reggae. Favela Rising was my favorite of the three, due to the powerful emotional content.

The contrast between the bird's eye view of Rio De Janeiro at end of This Is Bossa Nova and a very similar view of the same city at beginning of Favela Rising is striking. The former is very much like a postcard, whereas the latter is noticeably darker and goes on to show the favelas, which are not shown at all in the former.