Last year I was lucky to be able to visit the Bate Bola crew Fascinação with Vincent Moon, French musicological film-making nomad. The results are in this film, a unique portrait of this untold and unseen aspect of Rio’s Carnival. As far as I aknow it’s the first time anyone from outside Brazil has made a film about the Bate Bola. Vincent’s own description of his film reads: “a rare document on the carnival from the north of Rio, far from the beach and the cliché of ‘la cidade maravilhosa’. Maybe the oldest form of carnival in Brazil, a contest in between neighborhoods, each team dressed in surrealist outfits, mixing various layers of popular cultures, between ultra-kitsch icons and futuristic gladiators.”

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