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ONELIFE #38 – US English

  • Text
  • Rover
  • Evoque
  • Shenzhen
  • Vehicles
  • Bamford
  • Urban
  • Photography
  • Global
  • Marley
  • European
Land Rover’s Onelife magazine showcases stories from around the world that celebrate inner strength and the drive to go Above and Beyond. New perspectives meet old traditions - these contrasts unite in the latest issue of ONELIFE. Together with Landrover we travelled around the globe. From the high-tech city of Shenzhen in China to the carnival subculture in Brazil to Wuppertal. We got to know one of the oldest space travelers, technology visionaries and watch lovers, just as the new Range Rover Evoque. An exciting journey through the world of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

CULTURE Frills, fur,

CULTURE Frills, fur, flashing lights and all that glitters unleash dazzling energy in Guadalupe, a neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. In their ornate costumes and masks, a parade of crews takes to the streets. With courtly shapes that recall the historic tradition, but neon designs and iridescent trimmings that are thoroughly modern, the look is bright, rich, garish yet regal. After a year of preparation, the crews are like strutting peacocks. Parasols, colored smoke and fireworks fill the air. Kids rule the streets, full of excitement, bravado and pride. These and other astounding visions are captured in This is Bate Bola, a short movie co-directed by Ben Holman and Neirin Jones, which takes viewers deep into the heart of a lesser-known Rio Carnival subculture. Away from the main Carnival, bate-bola sees dozens of crews of working-class people put on their own themed parades, a surreal competition between suburban neighborhoods full of elaborate costumes and props. Equal parts play and menace, bate-bola has roots in African and European carnival traditions in which masked men banging animal bladders on the ground, would excite and scare the crowds. Today, bladders are replaced by plastic globes tied to sticks the name means ‘beat the ball.’ Holman is a British documentary filmmaker with an enviable collection of stamps in his passport “Plan the vacation that you really want to go on, then work backwards, and find the film that fits,” he jokes and a track record of movies that reveal bravely poignant stories from around the world. Like his movies, Holman is warm, engaging and instantly likeable. His energetic, right-inthe-action approach is immediately evident: one of his legs is strapped up because he broke it during filming. Ever since fulfilling a childhood dream to spend the millennium New Year’s Eve on Copacabana Beach, Holman has split his time between London and Brazil. “I’d always had a strong connection with South American culture through friends I’d had as a teenager. It created an affinity for me with that culture.” A keen amateur boxer, Holman came across an NGO in one of Rio's most notorious favelas, which organized boxing for personal development. Seeing something that went beyond stereotypes of the city, he developed a strong connection with the community and began making movies for them, hoping to make a wider impact. One community member, Alan Duarte, set up his own NGO, Abraço Campeão. Telling Duarte’s story became a labor of love for Holman. The result, The Good Fight was deemed Best Documentary Short at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, which led to funding that transformed the support they were able to give to young people in the community. Holman’s movies are experiential and intimate. You can feel the atmosphere, excitement and the sensory power of the moment. They also give a platform to marginalized voices: “A recurring theme in a lot of my work is going to places and people that I feel are misunderstood or misrepresented, where our knowledge is largely formed by what the media tells us, and trying to show the reality. So the idea of Bate Bola was to show that beautiful heart, that warmth that I discovered in those communities, which is very strong and absolutely existent. “Bate-bola is so vibrant. It’s about the noise and the smells and the Ben Holman turned in a London ad craziness it’s fun and beautiful, agency job to make documentaries that but also a little bit edgy and scary. shine a light on the world’s hidden stories I thought it was an amazing metaphor for favela communities themselves.” Holman sees bate-bola as an example of something that may need external validation to be appreciated within its own country. “These people are otherwise invisible. They put on masks to be seen. Outside their small community they’re not known, they’re not getting respect or praise for the beautiful costumes, the art that goes into it all.” The theater of bate-bola is echoed in special movies screenings in Chicago and London, which included a standing audience, a live semi-improvised score with Brazilian musicians, and an after-party soundtrack by creator Ben Lamar Gay’s band to reproduce the carnival vibe. Holman hopes This is Bate Bola will bring overdue attention to and appreciation of the phenomenon, and to Rio’s other textures beyond Carnival cliches. WATCH THE FILM View This is Bate Bola and learn more about Ben Holman's work at www.beijafilms.com 64

RIGHT XXXXXX “FUN AND BEAUTIFUL, EDGY AND SCARY - BATE-BOLA IS A METAPHOR FOR THE FAVELAS THEMSELVES” 65