Living Loud uses percussive instruments to portray the message of community, womanhood, and love through the lens of samba-raggae music from Brazil.
by Kennedy Hannible
See the 40-minute documentary Living Loud on February 24 @3:15 PM at LOOK Cinemas (657 West 57th Street) as part of New York City’s 12th Annual Winter Film Awards International Film Festival. Tickets now on sale!
Carin van der Donk, a seasoned Dutch photographer and camerawoman, debuts her first film, telling the story of a samba-reggae drum line, Fogo Azul, based in New York City.
Under the weight of Black Lives Matter, the Trump administration, and budding threats of COVID-19, van der Donk picked up her camera during the 2020 Women’s March with snow sweeping around her to capture Fogo Azul’s energy amid national uncertainty.
Co-produced by Sarah Teale, Living Loud tells the story of community, womanhood, and love through the connectivity brought by percussive instruments. “It spread and the power of it has spread, and that’s amazing, it’s the power of the drum,” said Teale. Featuring the lives of women in New York and the women of Banda Didá in Brazil the film showcases the intersectionality of race, womanhood, and music that continues to change lives.
When curating an idea for this film how did you know Fogo Azul was a story you wanted to capture?
Sarah Teale: Carin and I are neighbors and when Trump was elected, there was this group of women in Union Square asking people to join them in this drumming and to appear in some of the marches. And I thought, wow, I should do that. And then I went home, and I found out that Carin was a part of it. She joined them early in 2016, before the election. Then there was the trip to Brazil that came up in 2020, but I had a film coming out and I couldn’t go. But Carin went and I said ‘Well, you know, turn your camera from photo to video, start filming, even before the Brazil trip. She started filming this because it’s fun, it’s really inspiring.
Carin van der Donk: I have about a million photos of everyone from the beginning when we started in 2016 and 2020 at the Women’s March. At the march the snow started coming down, it was actually kind of insane and it was just gorgeous moments where there was just this snowstorm and everybody just kept on drumming, and it just really energized the whole march. And Sarah said “Carin, hit the video button” and I did, and from there it was very organic because I’m a member of the band, so it was really just a continuation of what I was already doing. It felt natural.
As your first debut film alongside the help of Sarah, what was your experience in creating a short film for the first time?
van der Donk: I really have to give credit to Sarah and Isa, director of photography, on that. Sarah looks really sweet and nice, but she’s actually a bit of a pit bull. You know when she’s got her jaws on something, so you’re not going to let go. Sarah was really a big driver in, we can do this, we can make this happen. I think as a woman it’s not something that comes naturally to me to just keep on driving forward and have this kind of unapologetic ambition. It’s definitely not how I was raised. I was raised to be quiet and not take up too much space. The concept or the action of drumming has changed my mindset. It has changed who we are as women, and I think everyone in the band experiences that to a certain degree.
Teale: I think that is why Adriana (leader of Banda Didá) does it. That’s why she does it. For all the little young girls in Brazil, in Salvador, in black Brazil where they’re really discriminated against sadly. She does it so they can feel empowered. Then they can feel they can be lawyers or teachers or whatever they want, but it initially comes from being quite young and learning how to do that and to own their power in the middle of Carnival. Women weren’t allowed to drum, blacks weren’t allowed to drum, and they stand there making a hell of a noise.
van der Donk: I have produced photography shoots a lot, so on the production side it came easy. When I first started in Bahia I was really insecure and Isa was really the one driving what was happening. But by the time we shoot in Coney Island, I feel incredibly confident. The one thing I learned is that I can’t be shooting and directing at the same time. It’s too much.
How did you solve the problem of picking up and balancing the sounds from the drums?
van der Donk: Two days in we realized the sound was completely blown out and unusable, and not only that, but the vibrations of the drumming had broken Isa’s equipment. So, we had to scramble and I had to slowly find a sound person and it just had to be an all-female crew but we did it in the end.
Teale: Luckily in New York, we ended up with a very good sound person, Fiona McBain. You know if, in the beginning, if we’d known we could have sent her to Brazil, that was the biggest challenge, was the sound. It’s a lot, we are very lucky for a sound engineer called Ken Hahn. He had huge sound studios at one point and he’s just a kind of genius at this stuff and he kind of rescued it.
As you were in the space with these women, how did you develop a sense of when to direct and when to observe and shoot?
van der Donk: I never tell any of the drummers what to do ever, other than to sit down in interviews, I’m Verite filming.
Teale: I’ve let things happen as they’re happening and you’re just there to observe. You can do a little bit of ‘why don’t we go this easy?’ but you are not there to influence what happens. Let it go, which can often be difficult, but you just have to trust that, and we had a very good editor. Angele Gandini is used to editing Verite films which is a real skill too. It’s certainly different than doing a feature where you know you have a script and you have a shortlist. You can really drive it that way. With Verite, you just have to find those moments that have magically happened, because they always do magically happen if you let them.
van der Donk: During the mermaid parade, Stacy (Fogo Azul leader) decided to do something different because it just felt better for the music. Again, I never told them what to do. I never wanted to interfere and be intrusive in any way, shape, or form, which I’ve also done with my photography. I never asked them to pose.
Lastly, what do you want the audience to take from your film?
van der Donk: I think the message of community. I find the history of Reggae fascinating with the combination of even within a struggle you insist on having joy. The history of Pellegrino, Brazil is horrendous, and for this kind of music to come out of it, like this beautiful protest music that then turns into LGBTQ empowerment in New York City. It’s about the intersection of using music or developing music to break through barriers.
*This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness
Kennedy Hannible
Kennedy Hannible is a young storyteller with a special talent for crafting captivating narratives that deeply connect with readers. She is currently a junior student at New York University, where she is pursuing studies to enhance her storytelling skills. She is exploring how to weave together the stories of many people in her journalism research to produce language that does them justice.
About Winter Film Awards
New York City’s 12th Annual Winter Film Awards International Film Festival runs February 21-25 2024 in New York City and includes 82 outstanding films, a diverse mixture of animated films, documentaries, comedies, romances, dramas, horror films, music videos and web series of all lengths. Our five-day event is jam-packed with screenings and Q&A sessions at NYC’s LOOK Cinemas, six Education sessions/workshops and a variety of filmmaker networking events all coming to a glittering close on February 25 with our red-carpet gala Awards Ceremony.
Winter Film Awards is dedicated to showcasing the amazing diversity of voices in indie film and our 2024 lineup is 58% made by women and half by or about people of color. Filmmakers come from 23 countries and 41% of our films were made in the New York City area. 13 films were made by students and 26 are works from first-time filmmakers.
Winter Film Awards programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Promotional support provided by the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment.
Visit https://winterfilmawards.com/wfa2024/ for more information.
