Video #3

I really should've taken some VES (Visual and Environmental Studies) back during my undergrad years. Planning, filming, editing and publishing videos online, all while trying to make sure my camcorder doesn't get snatched up by an opportunistic thief, is not all that easy. iMovie on my Mac is pretty intuitive, but actually planning the subjects I shoot, creating some form of story arc, and making videos that might be vaguely interesting to other people is a daunting task.

Today I was talking with the new study abroad student that's staying at my Brazilian family's house. Her perspective is much like mine, and my fellow American colleagues, when we were studying in Bahia. She noticed right away the racial issues that exist here and how they mirror, but also differ significantly, from issues of race and racism in the States. She also mentioned the different forms of privilege, racial and socio-economic, that one has to come to terms with when traveling to a place like the Northeast of Brazil. Poverty, under- and unemployment, and the very obvious levels of social stratification here are much more stark than in the United States.

In my home, for example, people are constantly coming in and out of our house - mostly family and friends, but also hired help. And even though my family would probably only be classified as middle class, two maids work full time at the house. They are in many ways treated like family (when I first stayed here, it actually took me a couple weeks to figure out who was a maid versus who was just family helping out around the house) but they are still paid employees. And our household definitely seems like the foundation of a rather large extended family. Cousins periodically stay in the home for weeks at a time and are always over for lunch, or before and after work and/or classes. Much of my original reason for bringing my camera in the first place was to try and make a mini-documentary about my Brazilian family, chronicling the weeks surrounding Carnaval. And admittedly, part of this project was really just a way to help me actually get my head around my crazy network of Brazilian family and friends.

But to start, I'll be looking at my brother, Junior, who is the singer in an axe band. Axe is the local form of popular music that is huge during Carnaval in Bahia. As my buddy Davidinho described, it is a "fast, drumbeat heavy, synth laden, Brazilian pop music." He'll be traveling away from Salvador during Carnaval to perform in other Carnaval festivals in Bahia, but he has been doing shows in Salvador for the past few weeks. I took a few quick shots of an informal rehearsal last night.


Banda Nu Groove - Rehearsal from David Williams on Vimeo.

I tried directly uploading this video to blogger because the quality on youtube.com has not been great. I might try vimeo.com as well. If you know of any other good video sites please let me know. And if you have any suggestions for how I should go about making the family documentary, or any other ideas for videos, please let me know.

And to all the wonderful people that have commented: I will try and keep garbage bins out of most of my videos. I will also avoid will.i.am and/or the Black Eyed Peas as much as possible. If I ever get back to a cold weather climate, I will most definitely invest in a smoking jacket. And, although the subjects of most of my films will not be me, I promise to make at least a few cameos - but even if you don't see me, I promise I'm having a great time.