Stage Name, short documentary film

A rather unusual act for African audiences to watch, The Tragedy of the Marquis of Mantua and the Emperor Charlemagne is a mediaeval European story which is the major play of the Tchiloli theatre genre, specific of the São Tomé e Príncipe island-nation. How does this play come to be restaged here and who is making the efforts of keeping the cultural identity of the island going on?

//

Brought by the Portuguese to São Tomé and Príncipe in the 19th century, an ancient french tragedy gave origin to Tchiloli, the restaging of this text - a product of cultural assimilation and colonialist heritage that lasts until today. How much of daily life is informed by fiction and vice versa? What is the role of texts and speech - religious, political or theatrical – in shaping a society and culture? How much of the actors and their country is reflected in the characters and in the stories they play? 

“From this arises an argument: whether it is better to be loved than to be feared, or the contrary. I reply that one should like to be both one and the other; but since it is difficult to join them together, it is much safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.(...) And men are less hesitant about harming someone who makes himself loved than one who makes himself feared because love is held together by a chain of obligation which (...) is broken on every occasion in which their own interests are concerned; but fear is sustained by a dread of punishment which will never abandon you.”
Niccoló Machiavelli, The Prince

Festival Selections:

13th RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film - Edinburgh, Scotland

USC Center for Visual Anthropology - Los Angeles, USA

Espai Mallorca Gallery - Barcelona, Spain

Community Channel, UK TV

Culture as Performance Lecture, York University - Toronto, Canada

with Amâncio Carvalho, Vitorino Pires, Nelson Vaz

Director, Camera Operator, Editor Miguel Rato
Sound Sara Rato
Sound Editor Tim Bamber
Music Tragédia Florentina de Caixão Grande, 
Tragédia Formiguinha da Boa Morte, Plapatela

with the support of One World Media and Disruptiva.net

Duration: 20 minutes

Stage Name, short documentary film

A rather unusual act for African audiences to watch, The Tragedy of the Marquis of Mantua and the Emperor Charlemagne is a mediaeval European story which is the major play of the Tchiloli theatre genre, specific of the São Tomé e Príncipe island-nation. How does this play come to be restaged here and who is making the efforts of keeping the cultural identity of the island going on?

//

Brought by the Portuguese to São Tomé and Príncipe in the 19th century, an ancient french tragedy gave origin to Tchiloli, the restaging of this text - a product of cultural assimilation and colonialist heritage that lasts until today. How much of daily life is informed by fiction and vice versa? What is the role of texts and speech - religious, political or theatrical – in shaping a society and culture? How much of the actors and their country is reflected in the characters and in the stories they play? 

“From this arises an argument: whether it is better to be loved than to be feared, or the contrary. I reply that one should like to be both one and the other; but since it is difficult to join them together, it is much safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.(...) And men are less hesitant about harming someone who makes himself loved than one who makes himself feared because love is held together by a chain of obligation which (...) is broken on every occasion in which their own interests are concerned; but fear is sustained by a dread of punishment which will never abandon you.”
Niccoló Machiavelli, The Prince

Festival Selections:

13th RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film - Edinburgh, Scotland

USC Center for Visual Anthropology - Los Angeles, USA

Espai Mallorca Gallery - Barcelona, Spain

Community Channel, UK TV

Culture as Performance Lecture, York University - Toronto, Canada

with Amâncio Carvalho, Vitorino Pires, Nelson Vaz

Director, Camera Operator, Editor Miguel Rato
Sound Sara Rato
Sound Editor Tim Bamber
Music Tragédia Florentina de Caixão Grande, 
Tragédia Formiguinha da Boa Morte, Plapatela

with the support of One World Media and Disruptiva.net

Duration: 20 minutes

Stage Name, short documentary film

A rather unusual act for African audiences to watch, The Tragedy of the Marquis of Mantua and the Emperor Charlemagne is a mediaeval European story which is the major play of the Tchiloli theatre genre, specific of the São Tomé e Príncipe island-nation. How does this play come to be restaged here and who is making the efforts of keeping the cultural identity of the island going on?

//

Brought by the Portuguese to São Tomé and Príncipe in the 19th century, an ancient french tragedy gave origin to Tchiloli, the restaging of this text - a product of cultural assimilation and colonialist heritage that lasts until today. How much of daily life is informed by fiction and vice versa? What is the role of texts and speech - religious, political or theatrical – in shaping a society and culture? How much of the actors and their country is reflected in the characters and in the stories they play? 

“From this arises an argument: whether it is better to be loved than to be feared, or the contrary. I reply that one should like to be both one and the other; but since it is difficult to join them together, it is much safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.(...) And men are less hesitant about harming someone who makes himself loved than one who makes himself feared because love is held together by a chain of obligation which (...) is broken on every occasion in which their own interests are concerned; but fear is sustained by a dread of punishment which will never abandon you.”
Niccoló Machiavelli, The Prince

Festival Selections:

13th RAI International Festival of

Ethnographic Film - Edinburgh, Scotland

USC Center for Visual Anthropology - Los

Angeles, USA

Espai Mallorca Gallery - Barcelona, Spain

Community Channel, UK TV

Culture as Performance Lecture, York

University - Toronto, Canada

with Amâncio Carvalho, Vitorino Pires, Nelson Vaz

Director, Camera Operator, Editor Miguel Rato
Sound Sara Rato
Sound Editor Tim Bamber
Music Tragédia Florentina de Caixão Grande, 
Tragédia Formiguinha da Boa Morte, Plapatela

with the support of One World Media and Disruptiva.net

Duration: 20 minutes