ABOUT THE PROJECT

LOGLINE
A documentary about empowerment through drumming in Salvador, Brazil with Dida, the first black, female samba reggae drum line and Fogo Azul, an all-woman, non-binary drumming group in New York.

SYNOPSIS
In 2016 Stacy Kovacs formed Fogo Azul, an all-woman, non-binary, samba reggae drumming band, with just fifteen drummers. By 2020 they had a hundred and ten members and they formed a powerful and loud leadership at the resistance marches, including the Dyke March, the Women’s March and the Pride Marches and to causes such as BLM and Pro-Abortion protests. The band also brought together drummers of every race, sexual persuasion and income bracket, united in their shared values of racial and gender equality and justice for all.

In February, 2020 Stacy took 40 members of Fogo Azul to Salvador, the center of the black community in Brazil, to learn more techniques from Banda Didà, the first all-black, all female samba reggae drumming group, run by the world-renowned Adriana Portela, and to drum in carnival. Then in 2022 Adriana traveled to New York to rehearse with the drummers of Fogo Azul and to lead them in the Mermaid Parade in Coney Island. Stacy has long admired Adriana and considers her a mentor and as Adriana enters the rehearsal room, over 100 drummers welcome her with an exuberant drum roll. The excitement and energy are palpable and Adriana later admits that she is overwhelmed by the response. She also reflects on the difference between the drummers of Fogo Azul, who are not afraid to live their true selves or to speak out politically, to the drummers of Didá whose lives are more constrained by the limitations of racism, traditional gender norms, and poverty in Brazil. She is working on changing that.

Our timely film is about female, black empowerment and racial and gender equality and justice and how two very different groups of women have learned to make their voices heard through drumming.

PROJECT TYPE Documentary Short

DIRECTOR Sarah Teale, Carin Van Der Donk
PRODUCER Sarah Teale, Carin Van Der Donk
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Amanda Tiller

WEBSITE livinglouddoc.com