A collaborative media arts education project that will instruct and assist Brazilian youth in the methods and technologies needed to create and publish web based personal narratives in the form of hip-hop videos that challenge predominant stereotypes.
My proposal is an interdisciplinary course of study working with youth in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I will focus on the world of Baile Funk and Rap Proibido in an attempt to reveal the socio-economic factors and pop culture images that help form stereotypes about the subculture participants. Rap Proibido is a form of Brazilian hip-hop that is prohibited from commercial distribution due to the nature of the lyrics that often indict the police force and laud traficantes. Baile Funk refers to the music most commonly played at free street parties in urban favelas. These two forms of popular underground music give voice to the concerns of youth in the large urban favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
In my previous video work I used Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed techniques to portray true stories of oppression rather than relying on talking heads for narration. I intend to expand on these methods and utilize Theater of the Oppressed techniques to act out the true stories of oppression that help form the lyrics of hip hop songs. These true stories will reveal the living and working conditions of youth in these communities that are only recently being officially acknowledged by the Brazilian government.
In order to access the human resources needed to complete the project, I will collaborate with Cinema Nosso, a Rio based non-profit that teaches youth how to produce documentary and narrative video. I facilitated a preliminary Final Cut Pro workshop for the organization in July 2008. I intend to expand upon this workshop by providing extended training for youth in their organization. During the workshop I met students from another similar NGO based in Cidade de Deus, Rio de Janeiro. The students invited me to provide additional technical training at the Central Única das Favelas, CUFA. I also intend to develop an exchange with the Center for the Theater of the Oppressed where film students share skills with theater students.
In addition to stimulating the creation of visual media by youth in Brazil, I also intend to provide a palette of samples recorded from copyright free DJ vinyl. The current flavor of Baile Funk formed around the sampled beats from artists such as Afrika Bambataa who developed his sound DJing live streets parties. I intend to explore this journey of beats, samples, and rhythms as they travel globally. Emphasis will be placed on the transmission of common rhythms across the African Diaspora in an attempt to establish nonverbal communicative connections with similar communities worldwide.
I also intend to further encourage the creation of non-violent rap that will give voice to those that might not be heard otherwise due to predominant marketing trends that tend to perpetuate stereotypical relationships between hip-hop and criminality. Ideally this media will be distributed independently through CD duplication locally in Brazil, and internationally on the web. I will also seek other online methods of distribution that bypass old economic models where profits are diverted from the artists. In this way, I hope to provide the participants in this project some form of sustainable compensation that will help to improve their economic condition. I am seeking a mutually beneficial exchange that strives to provide as much as it draws from the culture.
Curriculum Development present through June 2009
Technical Training Workshops in Brazil June – August 2009
Written Thesis September 2009 – April 2010
Thesis Presentation May 2010
This workshop will give participants interested in creating their own beats and rhythms and introductory overview of several methods. Work will begin with Garage Band and move into more complicated software. Participants will also be given the opportunity to record, sample, and loop live percussion instruments and vocals. Beats will be posted to social network sites in downloadable formats and converted into ring tones to be shared across the web.
This workshop is a basic overview of the iLife suite for anyone interested in the creation of media. Participants will edit short videos and photo slide shows in iMovie, add score and sound fx in Garage Band, and burn DVDs of their work.
A detailed technical workshop for students with some prior experience working with nonlinear editing systems.
This workshop will give students that have learned basic nonlinear editing with Final Cut Pro the opportunity to cut narrative performance. Cinema Nosso cinematographers will record Theater of the Oppressed rehearsal footage with multiple takes. Students will then analyze the footage based on performances and edit sequences with the multiple solutions provided by the Theater of the Oppressed performances. The editing of these alternate takes will give participants insights into creating believable non-stereotypical stories.
Aspiring hip-hop and baile funk performers will be invited to attend an intensive workshop that will result in completed music videos. Participants will provide sample videos that will serve as models. Video projects will be scripted with storyboards based on the lyrics. Storyboards will be referenced for blocking and location scouting. Completed videos will be premiered at Cinema Nosso and reviewed by a panel of Brazilian hip-hop artists.
Video projects will begin with still images to reinforce the importance of framing, composition, and basic lighting. These projects will help participants learn to present information nonverbally. The use of nonverbal forms of communication will also allow non-Portuguese speakers access to their work. Workshops will be scheduled consecutively to build participants technical skills. Projects will be posted to individual blogs, a central social networking site, and the Palabras Project site.
Students are asked to shoot five still images. Images should not use people as the central focus, only locations that depict the following: home/street/ water/electricity/peace
Students are asked to shoot five still images that will give a total stranger a summary of their daily life. Images may include their friends, family, hobbies, favorite things, locations
Students will be asked to provide two images from national media (web, magazine, TV) that they feel represents them or an ideal they aspire to and two images that they find offensive, unrealistic, or derogatory. The same exercise could also be limited to images of Brazilian women.
Participants will be asked to develop a response to one of the images that they deem offensive. Responses may be textual, visual, or oral to be converted to some form of digital media.
Students will be asked to provide one image of a national hip-hop or baile funk star and one image of a US American hip-hop star. The two images should include a visual analysis that compares and contrasts the two images.
Instrumental beats are created and then swapped internationally via the web. The same beat could be used to create rhymes in two or three different languages.
Students are asked to interview the oldest person he or she knows. The group will collectively agree upon five basic questions to include in the interviews. Key words from the interview questions will serve as Palabras tags.
The project will be presented in a gallery space on a large flat panel that displays participant’s work on a central social networking website. During the opening of the thesis show, a live two-way web video feed will connect project participants in Brazil with gallery visitors in Santa Cruz. The video will be projected on a large screen outside of the gallery in order to not interfere with other audio/video presentations. Ideally this exchange will take the form of an interactive performance. Possibilities include a live beat streamed from Brazil to Santa Cruz where a hip-hop MC rhymes over the Brazilian beat. Another possibility might include a live drum circle in Brazil with local capoeiristas playing to the rhythm here in Santa Cruz.
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