Brazil Tales - filming with the Quilombo Tribe!

10 days into our Brazilian adventure, the crew bunged into a van and trekked north of Rio, around 4 hours drive, to the Quilombo tribe, Sao Jose.

As the van (full of camera gear, supplies and people!) travelled through the rich green (and surprisingly hilly!) Brazilian countryside, mellow African percussion music played on the stereo and somehow as we progressed everything seemed calmer, fresher and more peaceful than the madness of Rio.





















As we drove we began to hear the story of the tribe we were visiting.

200 years ago, the tribe (of African origin) were kept as slaves, but invented their own dialect so that they could plan their escape without their slave masters knowing what they were up to.

And escape they did!

Fast forward to the present day, and the people still live their lives away from the technological and industrial world, self sufficient, farming organically, living in huts, a long rocky (clay!) road from civilisation. They're passionate about music, their religion, and community. Around 200 people lived there, and outsiders, such as us, could visit only with special permission!

The land they live and farm on still technically belongs to the farmers whose ancestors kept the slaves - but soon that's set to change - and the land they've made their home will be legally theirs.




























We filmed through the afternoon and into the evening, meeting both older and younger members of the community.

Around Quilombo, a storm was beginning to brew (as everyone kept telling us) and quickly the sky turned blacker and blacker, and lightning flashes illuminated what had suddenly become a night-time sky! Still filming, as the first huge drops of rain came down, we quickly realised that we weren't going to make it out of the community that night...

Streams of water gushed down the hillside - and the flashes of lightning cut swathes across the sky. First we sheltered with the equipment, drinking hot organic coffee. After an hour, the storm calmed and simply became an almighty downpour!

We walked through muddy undergrowth back to their community hut, barefoot - trying not to drop the equipment! Here's my feet (below). Thinking practically (eventually) we began to wonder where we could stay..!















We had no cause to worry!

The people of Quilombo welcomed us into their homes with open arms - even they looked at our equipment like we'd brought it from another world - which in a sense, we had!

The best thing about the people of the tribe was their spirit - they loved to laugh, to take the mickey out of each other.

Even though they were cut off from civilisation, they'd recently got a TV, (and thus a small electrical supply) and we were stunned to find out they were big fans of Brazil's version of Big Brother - because they were really interested in the human behaviour of the contestants on the show!

















They cooked on a wood burning stove, massive pans so they could feed everyone in the tribe. Around our feet, chickens, dogs and cats, including the sweetest looking kitten you've ever seen, wandered through our legs, pecking, sniffing, probably wondering who we were! Rosa even made friends with one of the parrots... until it bit down a bit too hard.






























We slept 6 to a room - their own rooms which they gave to us - some people sleeping on the floor, others in beds, window wide open, expecting to get a thousand mozzie bites in the night...

But somehow, we all escaped unscathed!

The next day we waited for the clay road to dry in the sun before taking a rocky and sometimes slippy drive back. About 5 times in total, the whole crew had to get out and get very muddy pushing the van through sticky puddles of clay... which was fun, if a little hairy at times!

Eventually we made it back to the motorway, and then to Rio - where filming continued in the city, a long long way from the civilisation, and community, we had just seen!

Here's Nana filming the end credit sequence with Ipanema beach in the background!