21st of February 2023.
Initial PDF with Research and development, updated today:
The idea starts with the sentence “tell us something only you can say”. Felt exceptionally inspired by Su-lynn’s briefing that day, and I’m very well aware I’m not the only person that can speak on Candomblé. Still, maybe I am in my course year, in my group, and mostly from my own perspective growing up in Salvador in the state of Bahia in Brazil.
This subject and intention I set up are humongous, great and beyond anyone’s explanation power, yet, is a religion and a set of costumes that suffers from immense prejudice and racism to this day, even though its origins were set up to escape that scenario, therefore, to a personal spiritual and creative level I feel like it’s my duty to bring this to life and share with the world, the beauty and the intense faith that this religion set for all Soteropolitanos (people born in Salvador in Bahia, Brazil), even the ones who don’t personally practice or believe in this particular religion, practice costumes that got integrated so intensely in society through the centuries that became cultural of our people, beyond being solely a belief system.
“Candomblé is a multi-diety religion that believes in the existence of the soul after death. The word “candomblé” means “to dance” or “to dance with atabaques” and it worships the Orixás, generally celebrated with dances, songs and offerings. The Candomblé is the practice of African beliefs brought into brazil by slaves, therefore, it isn’t an African religion per se, it is afro-Brazilian, which means the history of Candomblé merges with Catholicism. Forbidden from practising their original religions, slaves used images of saints to escape the censorship imposed by the church, which explains the syncretism found in the Candomblé practices in brazil.” (Juliana Bezerra, https://www.todamateria.com.br/candomble/ , free translation by me).
The inspiration came from Yemanjá, the Orixá of the oceans, the moon currents. In my hometown, we celebrate her and give offerings to her in early February, so naturally, the subject came to mind. The first idea is to have someone struggle in their daily lives, but while walking in Salvador, find symbols of our day-to-day life, that remind them of their faith.
From a technical side, the character would be watched from the side, and stylistic inspiration came from the movie The Boy the Mole the Fox and the Horse (2022) which has a mixed media approach and a sketchy line art style that I want to incorporate into this film. The idea is for the story to be simple and easy to understand since there might be a narration of one of yemanjá’s tales in the background.
These two stories would align. Let’s now call the main character M28 (male 28 years old). Things that would be mentioned in the narration would appear on the path of M28, he would make a journey (per se, after finishing work, going back home) and would only be seen from a profile perspective, the movie starts B&W and as he finds symbols on his way that remind him on his faith (symbols that would be mentioned on narration), like for example he goes eat an Acarajé (typical food eaten on the daily life, but that originates from the celebration of Candomblé) he takes in colour, and now his clothes are coloured, and this is when I introduce projections and photography into the animation as well.
Later on in the film I want to incorporate stop motion and projection, mostly because a great part of Candomblé is the worship of idols, so to bring this into it, I plan to have the main character in a panic (haven’t decided what would trigger it) fall into the ocean, as in Salvador, there are numerous beaches that don’t have sand, but rather a tall wall that leads directly to the water when the tide is up.
Once inside the water, M28 would then meet Yemanjá, who would (as a siren) sing to him, and bring back his faith. The goal is not to look mystical or fantasy-like, but rather a moment inside M28’s head, of him, remembering the feeling and the origin of his faith, after the scene is done, we see the main character back on land, leaning against the very same wall he fell down in his imagination, looking out into the city sunset. he is now wearing white which will be a little easter egg for anyone that knows the religion and knows what it means for them, could also give the idea of a time jump.
The narration would serve as a guide for whoever is not familiar with said religion, the idea is not to be knowledgeable, but rather be informative and instigating. Yemanjá serves this purpose well for being a siren-like entity, that would have a large lore behind its symbology that most people and children will recognize and know what she represents regardless of their origins.
Next Steps on production:
The next few stops on the list are: trying to find resources, books, and papers but most importantly finding people to interview so have a better understanding on what’s the best approach to this and the most respectful one, what tales of Yemanjá I could source, and what poetry I can use for the narration.
Research on traditional clothes for Yemanjá and studying possible doll models for stop motion, calculating size etc. I aim to make an installation if time is available and need to take that into consideration when making the doll.
I will start character design on M28 and will do storyboard tests and art style tests for the 2D digital part.
Collaboration:
I aim to research traditional music to implement in the project, it would be used for dramatic and environmental purposes, for example, in a tense moment, or near the meeting of Yemanjá or the fall, the character would hear traditional drums and percussion, or the while walking on the street, M28 will briefly hear music from Salvador play in the background (fade in and out, crowd chatter, and more background and sound design) for that I am currently in contact with a handful of musicians that would be willing to produce or give authorization of use of their work.
For the Yemajá Doll, I will be pairing with Sisara Gama, my aunt, that is a follower of Candomble, has Yemanjá as her own Orixá and has most importantly been a fine artist and painter for the last few decades with a focus on craft and design.
Family and friends from home will be helping me source photography and other things needed that I can’t do myself because I’m in London.