Carimbó group addresses current theme inspired by Amazonian legend

The Amazon legend “Flor de Mururé” (“Flower of Mururé”) is the inspiration for the first video clip of the Para group Carimbó Cobra Venenosa, which was released on March 8, International Women’s Day. In a short film format, the video clip addresses, in a sensitive and extremely creative way, a very current and important theme, which is violence against minorities.

Passed orally between generations in the Afuá region (Ilha do Marajó), the legend of “Flor de Mururé” tells the story of a boy, who came out dressed as a girl, was beaten and had his body thrown in the waters of the rivers of the Amazon . When submerged, he returned in the form of a mururé flower, an aquatic plant with female and male characteristics, of Amazonian origin, very common in the Afuá region.

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“The work is an ode to beauty, enchantments and the female power of the Amazon and, therefore, it was launched on March 8, International Women’s Day”, says Marcos Corrêa, who signs the direction of the short film, together with Priscila Duque.

The video clip has as protagonist Gabriela Luz, actress and transvestite, who made, with the recording of “Flor de Mururé”, her first work after the gender transition. The plot, permeated by Amazonian Afrofuturism, mixes documentary and fictional elements with hints of surreality. The video also features, as characters, the female Orixás Iansã, Oxum and Iemanjá.

Amazonian femininity is present in the work with the meeting of cis and trans women singing together for the end of machismo and crimes of LGBTIphobia. There are also artists from the independent cultural scene in Belém, housewives, transvestites, children, cis and trans men, who, together, show that the fight for a less violent society is a flag that needs to be raised by everyone.

The recordings took place in Icoaraci and Outeiro, periphery of the Metropolitan Region of Belém. The production, carried out by Psica Produções, brought together a mostly female team, LGBTQIA +, black and peripheral.

“What is most valuable in the clip process is the issue of the periphery as a power. It is the gathering of people of different ages and genders in the team and in the cast. It was a political choice to have people from this universe, nobody was taken to record in Icoaraci and Outeiro ”, explains co-director Marcos Corrêa.

“When you put ‘Icoaraci’ on Google, what stands out the most are crimes and violence. We want to show that these places also have beauties: in the images, on the beach, in nature, but also in people. In the smile of a woman cooking maniçoba in the backyard of her house, of children playing. This is extremely powerful: showing the eyes of these peripheral people, showing their beauty to the world ”, he concludes.

The song “Flor de Mururé” was created from the story told by the ancestors of Naraguassu Pureza da Costa. The composition is signed not only by Naraguassu Pureza da Costa, but also by Luana Peixe, Lana Beatriz Lima, Luah Sampaio Nogueira, Erika Mayane Bonifácio Ramos, Dandara Nobre de Oliveira Nascimento, Eduarda Gama Canto (founders of the collective Vacas Profanas). With the lundu and carimbó rhythms, the song has been part of the Carimbó Cobra Venenosa repertoire since it was created, in 2016, and is present in its first album, the same name, released in 2020. For the clip, it gained a new guise.

“It is more than a song, it is a mantra of strength, an enchanted prayer that connects people to the issue of gender. The verses drawn in rhythm move the body and stimulate a sense of freedom, experienced in the cadence of the lundu and the carimbó. We feel the drums. We feel the presence of the forest. From the waters. We feel the strength of the enchanted, of the entities, of the orixás, at the same time that we vibrate in a contemporaneity that has experienced years of occupations, collective actions, artivism, performances and circles in celebrations and protests ”, describes Priscila Duque, co-director of the clip and leader of the Carimbó Cobra Venenosa.

“Flor de Mururé” is more than a song. It is more than a legend of the oral tradition of a family from the Amazon region. It is the narrative of real existences and resistances, but with dreams fed with fantasy.

Paraense group of the traditional carimbó pau & corda mixes documentary and fictional elements, with hints of surreality, making an ode to Amazonian Afrofuturism.

DATASHEET

SONG

Priscila Duque:  Voice and Maracas

Yago Dias:  Banjo

Héron Rodrigues:  Percussion & Effects

Raíra Maciel:  Percussion

Sheep Reebs:  Flute

Hugo Nascimento (Ugô):  Saxophone

Recording, Mixing and Mastering:  StúdioZ by Thiago Albuquerque

CLIP

 Direction : Psica Produções

Direction:  Marcos Corrêa

Direction:  Priscila Duque

Director of Photography:  Cris Salgado and Hugo Chaves

Costume design:  Labô Young, Maurício Franco, Roberta Mártires and Cris Salgado. 

Makeup:  Shayra Brotero

Designer:  Mila Fraga

Assembly, finishing and coloring:  Cris Motta

Digital Arts Animation:  Yan di Maria

Digital Collages:  Moara Tupinambá

Drone and credits video:  Walber Castelo

1st Direction Assistance:  Bárbara Von Paumgartten

2nd Direction Assistance:  Mariana Mikaely Corrêa

Sound Landscape and Sound Design:  Rafael Café

Protagonist and screenwriter:  Gabriela Luz

Script consultation:  Greice Costa

Cast:  Dama das Chamas Circus (Eli Pinheiro), mother of saint Rosa de Luyara, Anastacia Marshelly, Shayra Brotero, Carmo Coutinho, Adelaide Oliveira, Maria do Socorro Rodrigues Duque, Astrum Zion, Maria José, Michely Corrêa, Zaira Maciel.

ABOUT CARIMBÓ COBRA VENENOSA

Created in the district of Icoaraci, territory of effervescence of rhythm in the State of Pará, the Carimbó Cobra Venenosa group   has acted since 2016 occupying different stages, from streets, squares, public transport, political acts and soirees. With manifesto lyrics, it offers the public songs with criticisms of forms of oppression and immersed in social questions. With the slogan “music beyond the ears”, it brings the concept of transforming the world through art and raising questions about forms of oppression, machismo and TransLGBIfobia. Poisonous Snake Stamp it was idealized by Priscila Duque, singer, songwriter and producer and, at the time, Hugo Caetano, who was a singer and composer of the group. In the lead role of vocals, being feminine and assumed by Priscila Duque, and the drum played by Raíra Maciel, brings the stance in which she believes that art has a transforming force portraying the reality of an urban stamp, born on the periphery of the Amazon. The group aims to disseminate a more traditional aspect of carimbó, pau & corda, without the use of guitar, drums or electronic instruments and beats. It is a musicality that involves traditional knowledge and its masters, combining the traditional with the modern and with roots in black culture, of peripheral resistance. The  Venomous Snake Stamp it also brings the appeal to environmental preservation and conservation. And not only in speech, but also in actions such as the use of musical instruments manufactured by masters of carimbó and made from the recycling and reuse of materials such as PVC tubes, motorcycle helmets, among others.

In 2018, awarded by the VI Proex Prize for Art and Culture at the Federal University of Pará, the group recorded their first album, the same name,  Carimbó Cobra Venenosa , released on the main digital platforms in January 2020 and collects numerous presentations in municipalities in the state of Pará It also had presentations in cities such as Manaus, Salvador, Porto Seguro, Paraty and Rio de Janeiro.

MEMBERS

Priscila Duque – Voice and Maracas

Yago Dias – Banjo

Héron Rodrigues – Percussion & Effects

Raíra Maciel – Percussion

Reebs Carneiro – Flute

Hugo Nascimento (Ugô) – Saxophone

ABOUT PSICA PRODUCTIONS

It emerged as a cultural alternative for the city of Belém, synthesizing in its identity, language and curatorship the way that the outskirts of Belém consumes and produces art. Thus, Psica is able to bring together the most diverse traditional and contemporary, regional and universal musical styles in a very harmonious way. The mix of different styles based on the musical plurality of the peripheries has been present since the first edition of Festival Psica, conceived by the producer, this being its main characteristic, attracting the public’s attention and admiration in each edition.

ABOUT MARCOS CORRÊA

Audiovisual producer and director. He has worked in the production of TV shows, fiction short films, video clips, documentaries, productions for social media and live broadcasts. Debuts as a music video director with the release of “Flor de Mururé”.

ABOUT PRISCILA DUQUE

Black and peripheral woman, who defines herself as # PretÍndia or Cobra Naja, is the leader of the group Carimbó Cobra Venenosa. Singer, composer, producer and advisor to the group born in the District of Icoaraci – territory of cultural effervescence, located in Belém do Pará.

ABOUT GABRIELA LUZ

Amazonian, peripheral transvestite, Umbandista, actress, drag performer, artivist and co-articulator of the artistic and cultural movement of Themonias. Researcher in arts, gender and sexuality, art teacher, English and emotional intelligence.