{"id":229727,"date":"2022-06-24T18:46:10","date_gmt":"2022-06-24T16:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/film-review-falling-in-love-with-cabo-verdean-singer-cesaria-evora-all-over-again\/"},"modified":"2022-06-24T18:46:10","modified_gmt":"2022-06-24T16:46:10","slug":"film-review-falling-in-love-with-cabo-verdean-singer-cesaria-evora-all-over-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/film-review-falling-in-love-with-cabo-verdean-singer-cesaria-evora-all-over-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Film review: falling in love with Cabo Verdean singer Ces\u00e1ria \u00c9vora all over again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ana Sofia Fonseca<\/a>\u2019s feature documentary Ces\u00e1ria \u00c9vora<\/a> opens with hand-held, bootleg-style footage of the legendary Cabo Verdean morna singer in rehearsal. It is visually inauspicious but subtly heralds the film\u2019s great strength. An intimate approach that illuminates \u00c9vora\u2019s extraordinary career while staying close to her personal struggles and triumphs.<\/p>\n

The combination of the Portuguese director and journalist Fonseca\u2019s storytelling and editor Cl\u00e1udia Rita Oliveira\u2019s organisation of myriad archival resources results in a film that will fascinate both devoted fans as well as those encountering \u00c9vora\u2019s biography for the first time.<\/p>\n

Good music documentaries are often about more than the music, or even the basic biographies of the musicians. Ces\u00e1ria shares a little with Searching for Sugar Man<\/a> (2012) about 1970s rock singer Rodriguez. Both central characters are shy, and overwhelmed at times by the nature of their fame. As one character muses in Ces\u00e1ria, \u201cHow would she survive her success?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ces\u00e1ria \u00c9vora and Cabo Verde<\/h2>\n

Ces\u00e1ria \u00c9vora<\/a> died in 2011. She was born in 1941 in the tiny port town of Mindelo on the island of S\u00e3o Vicente, part of the archipelago of Cabo Verde in West Africa. She was a natural performer and singer for many years before her breakthrough albums were recorded in her fifties. The film moves back and forth in time, setting her burgeoning international fame in the context of her very humble beginnings singing in bars around Mindelo.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\"A<\/div>\n

<\/a>

<\/span> Ces\u00e1ria \u00c9vora film<\/span><\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fonseca also uses these retrospective sequences to reflect on the experience of Cabo Verdeans under the dying days of Portuguese colonialism<\/a>. To provide the context for \u00c9vora\u2019s early years, Fonseca digitally rejuvenates damaged archival footage of the Portuguese navy from the 1960s and reportage of the early days of independence. <\/p>\n

This mixture of old formats, including celluloid, tape, still images, voice interviews and concert footage creates an increasingly textured film. It situates \u00c9vora in the histories of not only Portuguese colonialism and Cabo Verdean independence, but also the \u2018World Music\u2019 movement. And, of course, African music. Morna<\/a> \u2013 the style particular to Cabo Verde \u2013 is a globally recognised sound largely because of \u00c9vora.<\/p>\n

In an interview<\/a> Fonseca discusses how hard it was to find old footage of \u00c9vora and to track down people who could shed light on her years of performing in Mindelo and her decade of self-imposed isolation. Fonseca\u2019s patient, investigative approach yields a narrative of discovery for viewers.<\/p>\n

Behind the scenes<\/h2>\n

Behind-the-scenes footage in a music documentary is always fascinating. Here \u00c9vora\u2019s fans bring her a pot of cachupa (a traditional Cabo Verdean stew) before her performance at the Hollywood Bowl. Her wry and mischievous sense of humour sparkles in the scenes where she sings with legendary singer Compay Segundo<\/a> in Cuba. What starts as a disharmonious scene between the ageing legends ends in ribald asides and laughter.<\/p>\n

\u00c9vora is an intuitive, gifted singer, and like her, the film also follows a free-wheeling style that hits the right notes. From typical tour bus scenes \u2013 band members sleeping sprawled on every available surface \u2013 to limousine rides in New York, the film tracks her on a punishing schedule of international tours, from Portland, Oregon to Siberia and most places in between, including the obligatory television appearance on Letterman.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

Barefoot diva<\/h2>\n

But she always returns home to Mindelo, to her household of family, friends and strangers offered a meal. Indeed, food is an understated but persistent theme throughout the film. \u00c9vora is a queen to Cabo Verdeans, particularly those on S\u00e3o Vicente, as well as those in the diaspora who meet her at her concerts all around the world.<\/p>\n

In spite of the considerable fame which \u00c9vora attained late in her life, she remained, in the words of one interviewee, an \u201canti-star\u201d. She was dubbed \u2018the barefoot diva\u2019 for appearing without shoes on stage. She was not barefoot for effect, or as a marketing ploy, but because normal Cabo Verdeans \u201cdon\u2019t like to wear shoes\u201d<\/a>. <\/p>\n

There were no concessions to popular trends in her music. Her songs remained a bewitching blend of insouciant sensuality, tenderness and melancholy. As she says to an interviewer in response to a question regarding her global renown: <\/p>\n

\n

As a person, I am the same person.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Listening to Ces\u00e1ria \u00c9vora, I am struck by her amazing ability to find and to make spaces between the notes. There is a casual yet exhilarating precision and feel in the melodic lines that recalls singer Aretha Franklin, and a tone echoing singer Billie Holiday, and yet \u00c9vora sounds like no-one else. In a lovely scene towards the end of the film she shuffles around her house singing some lines spontaneously for a guest, and her voice has the same extraordinary quality as it does on stage during her live performances.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s final scenes follow the more typical biopic line, preparing us for the inevitably of \u00c9vora\u2019s passing with a montage of bleak poetic shots of Cabo Verde\u2019s volcanic landscapes. Fonseca\u2019s rhythmical return to the plains and mountains of S\u00e3o Vicente is a reminder of \u00c9vora\u2019s love for home, and a metaphor for a voice that is both angelic and from the earth.<\/p>\n

Ces\u00e1ria \u00c9vora is showing<\/a> at the Encounters<\/a> South African International Documentary Festival on 25 June<\/em><\/p>\n

Source: The Conversation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ana Sofia Fonseca\u2019s feature documentary Ces\u00e1ria \u00c9vora opens with hand-held, bootleg-style footage of the legendary Cabo Verdean morna singer in rehearsal. It is visually inauspicious but subtly heralds the film\u2019s great strength. An intimate approach that illuminates \u00c9vora\u2019s extraordinary career while staying close to her personal struggles and triumphs. The combination of the Portuguese director […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":229728,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[3257],"class_list":{"0":"post-229727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa-news-2","8":"tag-mypr","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/film-review-falling-in-love-with-cabo-verdean-singer-cesaria-evora-all-over-again.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}