* Immediately following the film, Mestre Cobra Mansa will host a Q & A *
The film follows Capoeira master ‘Mestre’ Cobra Mansa and his friends in the search for the African roots of the Brazilian martial art known as Capoeira. In it, a powerful myth links Capoeira to a legendary Angolan game called Engolo—known as the Zebra dance. The film documents, for the first time, Engolo as well as other combat games, dances, and music from the Nyaneka-Humbi people in Southern Angola. The exchange between Capoeira and Engolo in Angolan villages and the insights from the streets of Rio and Bahia illuminate the affinities and differences between combat games and musical bows played on both sides of the Atlantic.
Directed by Richard Pakleppa, Matthias Röhrig Assunção, and Anthropologist Christine Dettmann.
