UXUA AND BRAZILIAN DIRECTOR CISMA LAUNCH SHORT FILM ON TRANCOSO'S FESTA SÃO BRÁS (FESTIVAL OF SAINT BLAISE)

Film Honors Cultural and Religious Traditions Unique to Southern Bahia

In many small Brazilian towns the most vibrant celebration each year is not Carnival, but instead local patron saint days. In Trancoso, a 16th century fishing village located in the south of Bahia, the most important of these is Festa São Brás (Festival of Saint Blaise), held every February 3rd.

This 24-hour party involves the entire community with the town exploding in color, music, dance, and sheer joy in a way only Brazilians can exude. The celebration includes Christian rituals as well as Afro-Bahian and uniquely local traditions such as raising a painted wooden pole in front of the 16th century São João Batista church (the 2nd oldest of Brasil).

Every year the town‚s elders select a festeiro (party-giver) to host the event and in 2011 that honor was given to designer Wilbert Das, creator of Trancoso‚s UXUA Casa Hotel and former long-time creative director of the Italian brand Diesel, together with two native families.

To capture the pageantry and antique traditions of Festa São Brás, Wilbert Das and UXUA Casa Hotel invited noted Brazilian filmmaker Cisma to document the event with the help of some of the oldest and most respected members of Trancoso‚s native community.  Dona da Gloria, the town‚s much-loved midwife and natural healer, is featured in the film, and with her recent passing the movie is dedicated to her.

The film can be viewed at www.uxua.com

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About UXUA Casa Hotel (www.uxua.com):

An iconic project by Wilbert Das, former Creative Director of Diesel. UXUA was built by local artisans using traditional methods and reclaimed materials and opened in 2009. The hotel‚s ten casas, some antique fisherman homes, blend harmoniously into the village without any exterior signage and have been featured in design and fashion magazines worldwide. UXUA has become a destination of choice for jetsetters and artists and is noted for the many cultural and environmental programs it supports.

About Cisma (www.cisma.com.br):

Cisma (Denis Kamioka) was born in Sao Paulo and studied design and animation while developing a reputation as an accomplished graffiti artist. He began his working career in 2000 as a motion designer in the esteemed Brazilian studio Lobo. In 2004, the fashion label Diesel offered Cisma a position in its Italian HQ and he executed graphics, animation, and film for the company. In 2005, he began to direct videos by the Catalan movie producer Boolab, and after one year was represented also by Blacklist (NY), directing ads for the best publicity agencies in the world, such as Wieden & Kennedy NY, Goodby Silverstein SF and McCann Erickson. Over the past 10-years he‚s directed videos for companies such as Nike, GM, FIAT, Rayban, Adobe, ESPN, among many others. Today he is also represented in France (Wizz), in Germany (Parasol Island) and in Brazil by Paranoid BR.

About the São Brás Celebration:

One of the oldest festivals of Bahia, the celebration is a sign of the faith of the people of Trancoso and involves the entire village. Participants gather in a procession and sing religious songs to the sound of drums while carrying a mast with the image of São Brás and a painted, decorative pole to be put up in front of the ancient São João Batista church, built in 1586.  Food, drink, games, and entertainment are provided to the entire community by the festeiro, honorary party-givers selected each year.

The party season of Trancoso actually runs from January 20 with the colorful Festa São Sebastião (Saint Sebastian party), followed by an Afro-Bahian celebration for the goddess of the sea, Iemanja, on February 2nd, and ending with the São Brás celebrations on February 3.

About Trancoso:

Trancoso sits 400 KM to the south of Salvador in an area noted for its endless kilometers of pristine beaches and for its panoramic position on a hilltop overlooking the sea. Founded by Jesuit missionaries in the 1500‚s, Trancoso‚s most noted feature is the UNESCO-protected Quadrado, one of the most picturesque settings of South America. The 320 by 60 meter grassy town square is surrounded by some fifty colorfully-painted antique fisherman casas used today not only as homes, but also as small shops and restaurants. The town has gained fame for its progressive environmental practices (motor traffic has been forbidden from the town center already for over 40-years) and for attracting a diverse crowd of hippies and artists who have settled here since the 1970‚s and integrated harmoniously with the native people.

SERVICE:
UXUA Casa Hotel
Trancoso - Bahia
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