Documentary presents masters of popular culture from the history of the Parintins Folkloric Festival

Malu Dacio – From Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS (AM) – The island Tupinambarana is, for more than 50 years, the stage of one of the biggest shows of cultural manifestations of our country, the Folkloric Festival of Parintins. And those who contributed to the birth of the Festival will be honored by musician Edson Azevedo with the documentary ‘Masters of Toada’.

The documentary has stories of artists who translated myths, traditions and customs of the Amazon through the toada, the musical genre that governs the presentations of Caprichoso and Garantido. The documentary will talk about the life experience of the eight members of the group ‘Toada de Roda’.

“Each one will tell his or her story about our culture and games. We will respect the sides because the group is formed by 4 participants from Caprichoso and 4 from Garantido. So, I believe that this work is important for our history”, explained the creator and musician.

The project was awarded the Amazonas Criativo Prize, through the Aldir Blanc Law, with the support of the Amazonas Secretary of Culture and Creative Economy (SEC) and the Parintins City Hall. “This project will mark history. It will be registered for all who want to see and hear it,” said Master Nelson.

“We have pieces of people who changed and marked the history of the festival. We tell a story because we live it. We participated in the recording of the first record, the ‘bolachão’, the first tape. We left Parintins as the pioneers to spread the culture, the toada, and the dance”, he explained.

The musician tells that the idea for this project came up a long time ago, when talking to his son Glaedson Azevedo. “He was interested in knowing about my trajectory in the festival and asked me many things. Together with Irian Butel, who is a historian, we discussed the project and came up with the name ‘Mestres da Toada’. The main objective is to register the history of each one of the interviewed toadeiros”, Azevedo said.

Interviews

Eight artists were interviewed for the documentary ‘Mestres da Toada’, among them Raimundo Azevedo, popularly known as ‘Rei’, from the Caprichoso bull, responsible for introducing the call and the berrante for the bull’s master character, and JP Galeto, son of Porrotó and grandson of Lindolfo Monteverde, founder of the Garantido bull, master who keeps the sound of the atabaque present in the boi-bumbá toadas.

“The documentary will be available on social networks. I have no doubt that people will have an incredible experience, after all, they will have many stories and knowledge about the festival, the Caprichoso bull and the Garantido bull”, concludes Edson Azevedo, who will also be one of the interviewees in the project.

Concept

Besides being a musical genre that rules the boi-bumbá game, the toada is, at the same time, a place of memory, a sustainer of identity bridges. A foundation of belonging to a social group that has in its oral tradition the strength of its culture.

The toada is constituted in the immaterial format of the heritage concepts, at the same time that it is an artistic construction of the musical segment.