Zackia
Art has always been a passion, since my childhood, specially the cinema. After many years performing in others fields as an educator, tourism businesswoman and producer, I decided to hear the yearnings of my soul. I published the books “A história das Três Marias” [The story of the three Maries] (1996), “De Verbo e Águas” [Of Verbs and Waters] (1999), and constituted with a crew of dreamers the “Fundação Sálua Daura de Arte e Cultura” [Sálua Daura Art and Culture Foundation] – FADA (2000), providing to the young the possibility of free access to the arts universe.
The film “A História das Três Marias”, based on my first book, was a great challenge, but the whole universe conspired in its favor. People that naturally incorporated the dream and enriched it with ideas sprang up. The first one was Silvana Soares, which goal was finding a text that approached a feminine theme to make a movie. Our encounter formatted the project and widened our power of attraction.
On presenting the proposal to FADA´s team, we strengthened the links of a positive chain that kept unshakeable all the way through the conclusion of the work, in spite of all the adversities.
We performed researches on the region; cataloging real stories that were interweaved with fiction. We opted for working with non-professional actors, but that had the necessary know-how to become the real character. In order to ensure an impartial selection, we hired a Casting Director and Preparer that was incumbent of the auditions and the final cast definition.
The most gratifying to me in this entire work was its accomplishment in partnership with FADA through the “Luz Câmera, Ação!” [Light, Camera, Action] project, offering the opportunity to children and young adults between 07 and 25 years old, that had never been in a movie theater, of participating in all the steps of the film, acting, staging and helping, also in the backstage, unveiling the mysteries of the cinematographic art.
The movie “A História das Três Marias” is the confirmation that everything is possible when we believe and persist.
We´re ready for yet another adventure: Light, Camera, Action!
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Silvana Soares
Making independent cinema in Brazil almost means to dedicate an entire life to a single project. In our case, we sketched our learning and teaching trajectory in the search of concretization of permanent images, which portray a little of our country culture. We present through the image the deepest meaning of the manifestation of our idea taken form, and we registered it in film, since the individual life that would keep it is transitory, as is the path of the São Francisco River, which we show and defend, with the intent of preserving it as much as possible. With the participation of all of FADA´s students, we were able to leave the mark that our existence didn´t pass unnoticed, and that we built the seed of what we call: Backlands Cinema. We contributed with the foundation´s students, who have in their interior the deep human necessity to offer something from themselves, to life as an indelible mark of their passing by this world.
A well lived experience, replete with both imperfect acts of kindness and the desire to accept life challenges, in spite of the risks, led us to this sublime moment of artistic satisfaction, through the fulfillment of our own fate, and for the certainty that we left something valuable to be passed to the next generations.
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Get to know more about the film
The film “A História das Três Marias”, as the book on which it is based, is a poetic version of the legend of the three Maries (Marias), sisters that used to live on the shore of the São Francisco River, and saw the backlands becoming a “sea”.
The history takes place in Minas Gerais state, “the water box of Brazil”, region populated with backlands culture, surround by streams and waterfall that makes the São Francisco´s watershed.
Here lived Manuelzão, a real character that inspired Guimarães Rosa and accompanied him in his strolls through the backlands.
At that same time lived the legendary Marias, in a little village on the shore of the São Francisco River. They exercised their magical skills healing and helping the community.
From the decision of the then president Juscelino Kubitschek, in a historic moment, of changing the scenery of the backlands and the quotidian of the shore population, in function of the generation of electricity, is begun the construction of a dam to “wall the São Francisco river”. The village and a large portion of fertile lands would be submerged by the waters, creating then the Três Marias hydroelectric power plant.
There is resistance from part of the population clung to the land and memories of the past. The girls also question the changes and the environmental impact, but by being visionaries understand that it is inevitable and associate those changes with inner movements of feeling contention and transformation of the energy into enlightenment.
A revolution happens to the people life, including the Marias that are obliged to move to higher lands. There they build an inn that accepts herdsman and feed the dam´s workers. The magic becomes to exist through the alchemy in the kitchen.
When the backlands become sea, the sisters, attracted by the waters, dive into the unknown, metamorphosing into mermaids, protectors of the lake, the rivers and the headsprings.
The movie portrays the knowledge of the backlands soul through its simplicity, valorizing our culture, talking to the unconscious in a story of love and respect for nature.
The film “A História das Três Marias” mixes mythology and history, the real and the imaginary, bringing archetypal characters that remit to universal values.
It guides us to a trip through the backlands, exploring the biodiversity of the cerrado, the São Francisco “River of the National Unity” and unique images of the sunset on the huge “water mirror” that is the Três Marias lake.
In the film, two stories interweave. The one of the Marias at the end of the 50´s and beginning of the 60´s, and of Iara, a painter, in the year 2000. The protagonist of the current time accesses the characters of the past through watercolors that acquire animation, becoming real images. In this fashion happens the magic of the dive in history and the absorption of history by the being.
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Curiosities
- The film was accomplished in partnership with the Sálua Daura Art and Culture foundation, giving the young the opportunity to enter into the cinematographic universe by participating trough the “Luz, Camera, Ação” [Light, Camera, Action] project in all of the steps of making the film. In conjunction with the technicians crew the students (re)created and told their own story.
- This was the first performance of the protagonist actresses. The film unveils new and great talents of the cinematographic art.
- The script building started from historic, mythical and mystical research. These ingredients interweaved in the story, provoking revisal of concepts and rescuing universal values.
- The film has as its background the São Francisco river, which is also a character which suffers interventions from men and becomes a sweet water sea.
- The fabrics donated by Cia. de Tecidos Fabril Mascarenhas allude the history of the chita fabric in Brazil through its evolution in the costumes and stenciling, embellishing even more with its colors and creating a fairy tale environment.
- The poems spoken by the Poet and Iara are “Fica” [Stay], “Estou Parting” [I´m leaving], and “O destino do Coração” [Heart´s destiny], from the book “Poemas Místicos: O divan de Shams de Tabriz”, [Mystic Poems: The Divan of Shams de Tabriz], by Djalal ud-Din Rumi, translation by José Jorge de Carvalho, c Attar Editorial - attar.com.br
- The scenes of the old village were filmed at the São Sebastião Farm, a scenographic town built by Cia de Tecidos Cedro e Cachoeira, which mimics the style of the 18th century, in the township of São José da Lagoa/Minas Gerais state.
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Português
