Mart'nália

Samba on Your Feet explores the shared roots of Carnival and Samba in Brazil and how they’ve come together to form a unique and vibrant culture. The journey begins behind the scenes of Rio de Janeiro’s Samba schools. Here, we witness the hard work and dedication of choreographers, dancers, musicians, and costume makers coming together in the spirit of teamwork and collaboration to create a spectacle that celebrates the infectious rhythms of Samba. The camera of Montes-Bradley also explores nearby favelas, where the audience discovers more links between Carnival and Samba and learns about the cultural history linking both to common African traditions. Cultural historian Haroldo Costa is our host on this pilgrimage to the roots, illuminating the importance of Samba in Brazilian culture and explaining its influences on Carnival.

Chico Buarque is a constant presence in Brazil's art scene and makes up its citizen's popular culture. This wealth in music, poems, theater and novels has been created over the last 50 years and in this film Chico Buarque converses about his memories, shows, daily life, work methods, creative process, in summary all his trajectory. The musician’s search for his German brother, whom he never got to meet, serves as one of the axis for the narrative.

To celebrate the life and the work of a multifaceted creator – playwright, poet, partner of the most important names of Brazilian pop music and, above all, an enlightened character of the Brazilian cultural history - director Miguel Faria Jr. gathered an incomparable cast of partners, singers, friends and rare images from the archives recalling Vinícius’ genial simplicity, with the spontaneity, the humor, and the freedom of a person chatting over a bar table, exactly how the eternal Vinícius would enjoy.

The search for a successor provokes the beginning of a clash between two young and talented executives of his group: Daniel Bastos, a lad of simple origins and excellent character, who is not only handsome and charming, but also intelligent and skilled, and Olavo Novaes, an ambitious and unscrupulous man who is ready to fight for the position, at any cost. To fight against Olavo‘s treacherous plans, Daniel will have the help of the sweet and sensitive Paula, a young lady raised as an only child who founds, on the eve of her mother‘s death, that she is adopted and has a family. What Paula does not know is that she has an identical twin sister, the wicked Taís, who is as ambitious and unscrupulous as the man who becomes her main ally, Olavo Novaes. Antenor, for his part, decides on having an heir when he meets the headstrong and honest Lúcia, a woman who will make this cold businessman find true love is and a real reason to live.

The story of a mother and daughter with opposing views on the path to success in life takes the audience on a contemporary journey about character, ethics and honesty.

An American writer has to learn the quirks of Rio de Janeiro’s people after moving to the Brazilian city.