Finally, it’s here! The video clip for “Galope feat. Robertinho Barreto” from Quilombo do Futuro, filmed in Lapa on an almost non-existent budget by Maarten van der Glas who came down from Amsterdam to contribute his video skills. We had discussed at length who to cast for the fortunate/unfortunate character and after coming up with almost nothing, ended up deciding to just look for people on location the day of the shoot. While sitting having a late lunch, I noticed Seu Pedro walking around on Rua Riachuelo, greeting numerous people on the street, having a coffee and then settling down to his spot on a stool next to o depósito, where he keeps an eye on things. I introduced myself and explained what we wanted to do and his eyes lit up – he’d done a film shoot for O Globo at one point and so, he was totally qualified! And, down to give us a couple hours of his time to make the video. When Maarten met Daniel Tot at one of his gigs a few days earlier (he is a fantastic drummer), he was sure that we’d found our other main character, the malandro. It helped that he lived close by to our location and, coincidentally, he had known Seu Pedro since he was a young kid growing up in Lapa. The rest of the cast were all friends who happened to be around and willing to participate.
The idea for the video came from an experience I had while waiting for the bus in downtown Seattle at 2nd and Pike. Back in the day, when I was 12 years old or so, it was a pretty similar vibe to Lapa in many ways (only a LOT colder and way less music)…the main difference being that I have no idea what happened to the old man or the malandro.
