Over the last decade Bárbara Wagner (Brazil) and Benjamin de Burca (Ireland/Germany) have produced a series of hybrid musicals about wildly diverse cultural communities. Equally at ease working with evangelical Christians in rural Brazil or LGBTQ+ dancers in Recife, with romantic pop artists in Germany or poets and rappers in Toronto, they collaborate closely with their subjects in developing works that straddle fiction and documentary to explore the social and historical roots of each subculture portrayed.
In this second programme Wagner and de Burca take us out of Brazil. First stop is Münster, Germany, in Bye Bye Deutschland! Eine Lebensmelodie (2017) where two singers carry the torch of the Schlager tradition, a sentimental and divisive musical form. In RISE (2018) we explore the liminal spaces of Toronto Transit Commission’s new extension, occupied by the performers of R.I.S.E. (Reaching Intelligent Souls Everywhere), a creative club inspired by rapper KRS-1's concept of Edutainment. Finally Wagner and de Burca draw on the films and writings of Bob Quinn, who proposed that Irish culture is directly informed by North African migrant cultures. Travelling between stately homes in rural Ireland and Marseille, One Hundred Steps (2020) reclaims these spaces of wealth and privilege for working class Irish and North African musicians.
We are delighted to welcome Benjamin de Burca to Glasgow to introduce this screening and discuss the works.
All films captioned for d/Deaf viewers.
