Last Day of Carnival

Several hours after we arrived in Rio, our crew stepped into THIS....


It was the final day of Carnival -- the winner's parade where the top 5 samba schools had the chance to dance and celebrate one last time. Rights for Carnival are owned by TV Globo, and because our trip was such short notice, we didn't have a permit to film inside the Sambodrome... so we joined the party going on outside. I can't really liken it to anything else... except perhaps when the Greeks won Euro 2006...

So my trusty cameraman Mark and I were joined by the Brazilian Contingent of "What A Booty!" We had been connected to a lovely woman named Lolo, who is an actress and producer in Rio. And probably one of the most fluent English-speaking women in the city, in my opinion! She was a whirlwind of energy that swept me along with her and quite frankly, is a big part of the reason I was able to keep going.... I was just PROPELLED forward!

In North America, my crew is Camera + Sound and if my producers are feeling generous and the need is there, a Production Assistant. That is the number of people you need to make a documentary. In Brazil, our crew consisted of:

- Field Producer/Fixer
- Director (ME!)
- Camera
- Sound
- Sound ASSISTANT
- Production Assistant
- Van driver
and SECURITY!

This last one blew my mind but it wasn't negotiable. It was common practice to hire a security guard for film crews in Brazil. If you weren't safe walking around with an expensive watch or digital camera, I could just imagine how tempting camera equipment would look to the less-fortunate. Our security guard was always a few paces ahead or behind, depending on the situation, and his eyes always watching for trouble (and a gun tucked under his shirt).

We also had to bribe the police to let us pass through the gridlocked streets.... a lot of this went by in a blur, with all of the commotion and back-and-forth jabbering in Portuguese.... Talk about culture shock! Less than 24 hours ago I was in Toronto and here I was, in the midst of CHAOS!!
If we were being paranoid, let me tell you what I experienced pulling out my camera to take a few snaps of the street parties near the Sambodrome. I immediately had a dozen or so eyes on me... it was surreal. Apparently only the uber-rich have digicams in Brazil.

And if people see a camera flash, they get all excited and pose, no matter what!

This one's blurry but this group of kids spotted me from far away and came over to pose for a pic!

I'm sure my eyes are popping out of my head in all of the footage... it was a zoo, people dancing everwhere, music blasting, costumes.... and it was HOT.

I had to stop for some refreshment.... here I am with the lovely Lolo.
Though I was in Brazil to discover the mystery of the booty.... I witnessed something else on this evening. Men comfortable in their sexuality. Halloween in North America means men dressed up as heros... "manly" costumes... or scary ones. But here, as many men were dressed in pink tights, dresses and rouge as women. And this was NOT a gay parade. It was incredible. Truly incredible. All about the glitz, glamour and flamboyance. Here's a man passing through in his frilly costume...

I was also amazed at how COVERED so many of the costumes were. Whereas other Carnivals, for example Toronto's Caribana, are all about skin, Rio is far more elaborate and creative. There were clowns, women in wedding dresses...full-body parrot costumes... I can't even describe what I saw. I'll have to dig out some pictures I find on the web.... I know the 'mulatas' are a big lure for Carnival (the hottest, sexiest women in Brazil who dance on the highest floats in next to nothing), but from where we were filming, all we could see were the thousands of fully-costumed revelers -- through a fence!


Our security guard was so inspired by our mission that he even tried to negotiate with the Sambodrome staff to let our cameras in.... Bless him, but they were running a tight ship that night:

Our back up plan -- squeeze our way through the free stands. It turns out that a lot of "cariocas" (native Rio dwellers) have become disillusioned with Carnival over the years as it's become more commercial and expensive. It is the neighbourhood samba schools that have built up this event with their costumes and floats, and yet, these same neighbourhoods have a hard time affording tickets to the events. So in recent years, a small section of "free" stands have been made available....



Nevertheless, I, in "bumblebee mode", made the best of this exciting evening.

And the Skol is just a prop... though I did try an amazing Churro.... it was very close to heaven, I tell you. (Notice our security guard, always just a few paces away).

By 3AM, we had had enough of the noise, pushing our way through the crowds, and the heat.

I passed out cold.

En Route to Rio

Do you like air travel in this day in age? I could write a book on it. I've actually come to a point where my journey through an airport and following of airport protocol is mechanic. But this flight to Brazil was by far the longest I had ever taken. Prior to this, my longest was to Greece -- 8 hours. Our flight to Brazil was through Air Canada, which lands in Sao Paolo and then we had to switch airports to fly to Rio. A total of about 15 hours travel time (fortunately with only a 3 hour time difference). AND, because of all of the drama with trying to get our VISAs really quickly (have you ever tried to muscle a foreign authority into doing something quicker over the phone??), we now had an itinerary that required us to fly overnite, make our connecting flight and then roll off the plane and right into the last day of Carnival festivities....

Thank goodness for sleeping pills (not mine). And thank goodness for short legs (mine).... I tell you.

In Toronto, I pleaded with the check-in staff to give me a window seat (no one to climb over me and wake me up) and they obliged! Even though when I did my electronic check-in all of the window seats were spoken for. Check-in staff really do have the power to make all sorts of things happen.... become their friend! It worked for me!

My seasoned traveler friends had suggested the following -- eat dinner on the plane, pop a sleeping pill, put on headphones with music, pull on an eyemask... and you'll wake up at your destination well rested. I couldn't afford to toss and turn, so after a meal of brown sludge (which apparently was beef, though the other brown sludge which was chicken basically looked the same), I did as I was told.... and I woke up in Brazil!

I barely remember Sao Paolo. I remember going to claim my luggage and seeing a lot of tanned skin everywhere. And it was the first time in my life I had seen so many female travellers in STILLETTOS. It was borderline ridiculous.... we're talking full-fledged party shoes. Also, there was a soccer game being broadcast at the luggage claim area, which had most of the mens' attention. This was Brazil! We found our way to the other airport, which was a loooooong airconditioned busride away. And we sampled our first Brazilian fare in the terminal. I wanted a coffee more than anything and couldnt find any iced kinds! Even in the 35 degree weather, your options were espresso or MATE -- ice tea. And of course, empanadas!! Mmmmmm.... This was the start of a feeding frenzy as I decided I had to try EVERYTHING I could while away. Once on the VARIG flight, I sampled another Brazilian original - Guarana pop. It's their national drink and tastes surprisingly like gingerale.... I also realized that I was in trouble with the minimal amount of Portuguese I knew....

So, we were cautioned against jumping into random cabs at the Rio airport, especially given our conspicious gear. We ordered a cab from inside the airport and within a half hour, were at our hotel in Botafogo. A quick shower and I might have blinked my eyes a few times... before we were rushing out the door for our first shoot!

Bunda-land!

I am going to Brazil.

Yes, the land of "bunda" (Brazilian term for the fabulous fanny).

Hate me, envy me, but know this. I am going for 3 nights, the travel time will be around 15 hours EACH WAY, and by some miracle we need to roll off of our flight to Rio and start filming. In other words, I doubt I'll be lying on the beach or swimming at any point during this trip. Which is a travesty. But I have to keep reminding myself, I'm not on vacation, I'm working. Even in BRAZIL.

It's our last chance to catch any part of Carnival, which many consider to be the greatest show on earth and one of the experiences one must have before they die. That alone is reason enough to suffer through a bit of exhaustion and sweat.... Remember, it's minus 20 celsius here in Toronto. It's 35 celsius in Rio....

I am so grateful to my producers and coworkers who helped to pull this shoot together... I will go into more detail at some point of the AMOUNT OF WORK it took to make this trip happen -- including pulling no less than a small miracle getting a country on vacation to issue us travel VISAs... but for now, I've gotta get myself ready.

Will fill you in soon.... It's going to be like the most vivid dream I've ever had. I will wake up in 3 days and wonder if it really happend because it will already be over.

I just hope i don't get sick, hurt, heat-exhausted, robbed..... (just how does one quiet an inner-worrywart voice as strong as mine?)

Tatyana

Dreaming of Rio....

I've been hard at work filming this documentary since November! And in the back of my mind, I always imagined ending my journey and wrapping in Brazil.

After all, Brazil is the land of naturally bronzed skin, tropical passion, samba, Brazilian bikinis, and healthy booty the likes of which you cannot find elsewhere in the world -- as in fit women with ample tushies... (yes, I've researched the subject thoroughly!) I've also been mesmerized by pictures and stories I've heard of Rio, Ipanema, and, of course, the greatest event in the world, Carnaval!

But, as we all know, TV production money is not limitless. And though I've been so lucky to have a pretty fair budget with which to make this film, a bit of cash has also fed my insatiable imagination. If you've been tagging along, you know that there have been many North American destinations.... when you add a traveling crew, equipment (and the considerable 'excess baggage fees')...incidentals... well, cash goes quickly. So South America always seemed very much out of reach.

And yet, I hoped... and daydreamed.

Fortunately, I happen to have the most fabulous producers on Earth, and in exchange for my first-born (jk!), I was told a few weeks ago that we could make a short shoot in Brazil possible. Which brings me back to October, when I was in research phase on this film. My researcher had pulled out the dates for Carnival 2007 in Rio and I had naively said: "Oh, we'll be long wrapped production by then!" Well it was now the 2nd week in February and we were suddenly under the gun to try to pull all of the logistics together in a couple of weeks! We definitely couldn't afford the heavily inflated prices of travelling in the heart of the Carnival week (Feb 25).... but we could definitely afford to catch the tail end of the festivities.... if only we could get our act together quick enough.

The challenges that lay ahead:

- neither my Production Manager nor I had never planned a shoot in South America (transcontinental travel logistics)
- neither of us spoke Portuguese.... which really does come in handy as English is very uncommon in Brazil
- I was away on an important shoot in Vegas a week before we were trying to head to Brazil, making it hard for me to focus on anything else
- Brazil was on VACATION! Now, I've always understood how some countries have major holidays (usually with religious or nationalistic roots)... but I never expected for a city like Rio to be SHUT DOWN for a couple of days of parading. Naive, indeed! Shut down were the offices of ANCINE, the film division of the government, who basically were the missing link in our Temporary Visa application process...
- and of course, add to all of this the little subtleties of working with an entirely different culture with different work ethics and approaches. We had connected indirectly with a "fixer" (a documentary term for a field producer in a foreign country) and she was lovely on the phone, but clearly had her way of doing things and was trying very hard to communicate to us just what sort of society we were coming into. And just how DO you convey something like that on the phone?

And then there was the pressure. The pressure to build a shoot that would deliver footage that would greatly surpass what we were spending on the trip! Having never been to Brazil, all I could do was imagine the settings, how things would play out.... It was enough to cause many sleepless nights. Of course, the film was not ABOUT Brazil, so we couldnt justify spending a week or more there. But was I ready to make such a major trip for just a couple of days? Those were the options. I'd travelled to Europe, North America... but never South America. And quite frankly, I was nervous. There are always horror stories of tourists getting robbed all over the world, but when you have LOCALS who immediately tell you to be "very careful" in Rio, it's enough to feel unsettled. I always try to be inconspicuous, but I don't always succeed....

You've certainly stepped into the mind of a gal seriously torn.... but this is BRAZIL we are talking about!

My imagination wins out, this time....