- Title: BRAZIL: SPECTACULAR PREPARATIONS FOR RIO DE JANEIRO'S ANNUAL CARNIVAL.
- Date: 22nd January 1978
- Summary: 1. CU PAN & LV: Copy of African sculpture with women platting 'hair'. (FOUR SHOTS) 0.15 2. LV & CU: Float representing Goddess of Sea being prepared. (FOUR SHOTS) 0.29 3. SV & CU: Women working on fibre glass items for float. (THREE SHOTS) 0.44 4. SV & CU: Women preparing costumes. (FOUR SHOTS) 1.06 5. CU PAN: Costumes being tried on by workroom lady. (TWO SHOTS) 1.18 6. SV ZOOM INTO CU: Float depicting chained slaves being brought from Africa to Brazil. 1.36 7. SV & CU EXTERIOR: Young girls dancing. 2.04 Initials JS/1650 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 6th February 1978 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL
- Country: Brazil
- Reuters ID: LVA6GYF8NKJBSRBT99W5T1ENMSKC
- Story Text: Rio de Janeiro, and people there are preparing for what they like call "the greatest show on earth". For four days next month, the worries of life will give way to he tropical verve of Rio, filled with laughter, colour and the infectious beat of the samba.
SYNOPSIS: Brazil is a land of three cultures-African, European and Indian. All three to be depicted in floats taking part in the 1978 Rio Carnival.
This display tells the story of a girl, instructed by the goddesses, to adorn herself in wedding dress and later dive into a lake. She emerged on horseback seven years later; symbolic that all life originated from water.
In 'favelas', or shanty towns, throughout the city, samba dancers are working on costumes that will portray a vast motley of themes. Carnival in Rio is a gigantic, spontaneous outburst of collective fun which unite??? the poor with the wealthy inhabitants of Copacabana's 'pleasure mile' and foreign tourists. Tickets for seats in the main stand can cost the equivalent of an average person's monthly income.
The final touches before the celebrations that fill the streets with processions of dancers.
The purpose of this float is to remind the tens of thousands of onlookers that Africans first came to Brazil as slaves. These chained figures are said to have guarded the Goddess of the Sea during her journey.
The Carnival is not all ritual; it's also about money. Newspapers gleefully announce the arrival of cruise liners from the United States and Europe "packed with foreign millionaires". And always, there is a crisis over the selection of the jury to judge the tableaux and the dancers. Their findings invariably cause heated protests. At the end of it all, Rio's central police are said to open doors, freeing those revellers whose exuberance knew almost no bounds.
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