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CULTURE MUSIC

Metá-Metá

São Paulo trio Metá-Metá synthesise punk, jazz, samba and candomblé into a coherent, visceral whole, whilst maintaining traditions of Brazilian song and folklore. Their first release, simply called Metá-Metá, was a stunning debut, a modern take on the Afro-Sambas of Vinicius de Morais and Baden Powell and their mixing of Afro-Brazilian traditions and samba rhythms. […]

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ARTS CITIES CULTURE SÃO PAULO SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Reclaiming the Jungle

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64-85 DICTATORSHIP CULTURE FILM FOOTBALL HISTORY POLITICS

Democracy in Black and White – Football and the Fight Against Dictatorship

The role of the Corinthians’ Democracy in Brasil’s re-democratization: Director Pedro Asbeg discusses Democracy in Black & White Fear of police, social tyranny and a highly repressive government once marked everyday life in Brasil. In the Pedro Asbeg directed documentary Black and White Democracy (Democracia em Preto e Branco), Asbeg spotlights an exceptional period in Brazilian […]

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ARCHITECTURE ARTS CULTURE NORTH EAST SÃO PAULO UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

Lina Bo Bardi – 100 Years

Lina Bo Bardi is revered in Brasil as one of the country’s greatest architects and December sees the 100th anniversary of her birth. Her work and ideas even transcend the shadow of Brasil’s titan of Modernism, Oscar Niemeyer; she is truly an architect’s architect. Yet the greatest oddity in a country often criticised for being […]

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MUSIC

Lost Sambista – the instrumental wave of 70’s and 80’s Brasil

In the late 1970’s there was a surge of instrumental music, not only in Brazil, and a lot of amazing talent appeared filling up concert venues and shining a completely new light on Brazilian music or giving a local taste to foreign genres. Here is a list of eight bands and musicians that were part […]

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ENVIRONMENT UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

The Green Giant?

When people think of Brasil and the environment the first thing that will spring to mind is the Amazon, specifically deforestation. What is lost in the noise is that Brasil and the Brazilian economy are amongst the greenest on the planet and that levels of deforestation have actually plummeted in the past ten years. Brasil has the […]

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CULTURE FILM UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

9 Essential Brazilian films of 2014

Accompanying an unprecedented level of national attention, Brazil’s always vibrant cinema community has had a number of international festival successes this year, exploring themes and diverse realities that break from what the world usually sees of the country. This is a selection of Brazilian cinema’s 2014 highlights. Praia do futuro Getúlio Casa Grande O Lobo atrás da […]

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PHOTOGRAPHY UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

René Burri’s Brasil

  Swiss Photographer René Burri (9 April 1933 – 20 October 2014) was renowned for his iconic photographs of major political, historical and cultural events and key figures of the second half of the 20th century. Amongst his most celebrated work such as portraits of Che Guevara and Pablo Picasso he spent much time in Brasil, taking iconic pictures […]

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DEMOCRACY EDITORIAL POLITICS UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

Reality versus Red Scare

Losing elections isn’t easy, and Brasil’s anti-communist paranoia is almost as old as communism itself, but in 2014, the decades-old fantasy of a Marxist takeover of the country is being amplified by a small fringe of Brasil’s right. They have their mentor in astrologer & ultra-conservative philosopher Olavo de Carvalho, who is based in Richmond, Virginia. Their principal bogeymen are Foro do […]

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ELECTION POLITICS

Ituassu: The Road to 2018

Two problems and four names emerge from the results of the seventh presidential election in Brasil since the return to democracy in 1988. On Sunday 26 October, more than 110 million Brazilians went to vote after an eventful campaign. The drama continued into the count, which was open almost until the last ballots were inspected. […]