Jair do Cavaquinho

A film that depicts the everyday life and the beauty of Portela’s Old Folk – a group of veteran samba musicians who belong to one of Rio’s most revered samba schools, the one with the most first places and accolades in Rio’s Carnaval pageant. These old gentelmen’s and ladies’ musicality and poetry are unveiled through their simple, but rich and meaningful, every day life in Oswaldo Cruz, a quaint neighborhood in Rio’s North Zone, that serves both as set and as a main character in this story.

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A documentary about the celebration of the National Samba Day with the aim of preserving the memory of part of the history of samba, which was being forgotten by the press and the Brazilian people.

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Documentary about Brazilian samba songwriter and singer Paulinho da Viola, one of the most sophisticated musicians of the genre. The film shows his biography, influences, masters and friends, as well his simple and peculiar way of life, with activities like restoring old cars, working with wood, playing billiards.

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Short musical film paying a tribute to samba composer Zé Ketti, one of the greatest popular artists of Brazilian music. In a jam session, in the late composer's house in Inhaúma, a neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, a group of friends get together to play his music while a "feijoada" (typical Brazilian food with black beans)is being cooked in the kitchen. The samba-players, first-rate samba stars themselves, remember Ketti's great hits in a homage to the man who was best known as "a voz do morro" ("the hill's voice" - but hill as a metaphor for a place where poor people build their shacks in slums, in opposition to city, where middle-class people live in Rio). Among the guests, names of the traditional "samba-school" Portela and ex-partners. Also, the presence of a black hat on an empty chair, represents the composer himself, who died in 1999, after a life of many accomplishments in music, and appearance in three of Dos Santos's films: "Rio, 40 Graus", "Rio Zona Norte" and "Boca de Ouro".

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Documentary made to commemorate the centenary of the birth of the legendary Paulo Benjamin de Oliveira, Paulo da Portela.

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