- 21 Dec 2020 9pm UTC
- dur 15min
Synopsis | This intervention is a symbolic walk to exhaustion. The intervention proposes the preliminary warm-up that precedes a fight of titans in a boxing ring. The intervention consists of the movement of the performer sensing the sudden fall when affected by perforations by bullets of semi-automatic weapons.
Black people in Brazil are still more than half of the population of the country. Between 2005 and 2015 the number of black people murdered increased by 18% and this also made us the majority of homicide victims, accounting for 71% of all registered bodies. – in Brazilian Forum of Public Security (2017)
Drama, Video Art – Color, No Dialogues, 16′ Brazil, Guinea-Bissau, 2019
Created by Welket Bungué
Directed by Daniel Santos
Performers Welket Bungué, Walter Reis, Daniel Santos, Jessica Senra and Kristin Bethge
Camera A Daniel Santos
Camera B Jessica Senra
Stills Kristin Bethge
Editor Daniel Santos
Recording Studio Rádio Escada
Original Soundtrack and Masks Walter Reis
Sound Design Frado Monteiro
Graphic Design Lucas Carvalho
Production KUSSA Productions
Opening Paraphrase Based on the Research Report of the Brazilian Forum of Public Security (2019)
Special Thanks Casarão dos Prazeres Marta Issa Daniela Punaro Safira Moreira Evgeny Makarov
KUSSA Productions © 2019
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Author’s Statement
‘Jah Intervention’ is a performance created by Welket Bungué. It is a performance action originated in the case of the Brazilian citizen Cláudia da Silva Ferreira, a resident of the community/favela of Congonhas, in the northern part of Rio de Janeiro, who was fatally shot by PMs on the morning of March 16th, 2014. In an attempt to lend the body of the citizen in disarray, she was taken in the boot of the military police car that unexpectedly ended up opening and causing her body to fall on the asphalt and be dragged for about 250 meters. This performance revives this event in a symbolic way but proposes to bring awareness about the dehumanization and perverse isolation that peripheral communities and their inhabitants (mostly Afro-descendants) are being victimized. On average, an individual with a height of between 1.70m and 1.90m gives about two steps every three meters, which would mean that to walk a space of 250m this same individual would have to give about 357 steps. In ‘Jah Intervention’ the performer proposes himself as a receptacle of lamentations, thoughts, indignations and personal inquiries. The intervention aims at a symbolic walk to exhaustion. The intervention proposes the preliminary warm-up that precedes a fight of titans in a boxing ring. The intervention consists of the movement of the performer sensing the sudden fall when affected by perforations by bullets of semi-automatic weapons.
BIO: Welket Bungué is originally from the Balanta tribe, was born in Xitole (Guinea-Bissau) on February 7th, 1988. He is a Portuguese-Guinean actor and film director. His father was Paulo T. Bungué, a Forest Engineer and expert in Guinean forest territory, specialized in cashew tree cultivation, and its mother is Segunda N ‘cabna, an ex-military and retired Guinean National Guard. He had as maternal reference Maria de Fátima B. Alatrache, his father’s last wife. Welket began his artistic training in 2005. He belongs to the theater companies Rastilho (Lisbon) and Homlet (Beja) where he is also a co-founder. He holds a degree in theater from the Actors branch (ESTC / Lisbon) and a postgraduate degree in Performance (UniRio / Brazil). He is a Permanent Member of the Portuguese Academy of Cinema since 2015, and a member of the Deutsche Filmakademie since 2020. In 2012, he was awarded as “Best Actor” for his performance in ‘Mütter’. In 2019 he produced more than six short films such as ‘Jah Intervention’, ‘It’s Good To Meet You’ or ‘Run If You Can, Dance If You Dare’ and its films have been screened on several international film festivals such as Africlap (France), Zanzibar Intl. Film Fest., Afrikamera (Berlin), IndieLisboa, DocLisboa, Rio de Janeiro Intl. Film Fest. or Stockholm Dansfilmfestival. He also directed the short films ‘I Am Not Pilatus'(2019), ‘Arriaga'(2019) and ‘Bastien'(2016) in which he was distinguished with the “Best Actor Award” and “Best First Film Award” by Shortcutz Awards 2017 in Ovar and Viseu (both in Portugal). In 2019 he was awarded with an “Angela Award – On The Road” at the Subtitle Festival in Kilkenny (Ireland), by Richard Cook and Steve Cash. Welket Bungué starred the cast of ‘Joaquim’, by Marcelo Gomes (Intl. Competition Berlinale 2017), ‘Body Electric’ (IFFR 2017), ‘Kaminey’, by Vishaal Bahardwaj, ‘Letters From War’ (Intl. Competition Berlinale 2016), by Ivo M. Ferreira, and he stars Franz Biberkopf in ‘Berlin Alexanderplatz’ (Intl. Competition Berlinale 2020), the new film by the Afghan-German director Burhan Qurbani, which lead him to a nomination for the Silver Bear and a nomination as “Best Male Lead” at the LOLA awards of the German Film Academy (Deutscher Filmpreis). Since 2016 he has been working regularly with the Mala Voadora theater company (Portugal). He is a co-founder of Kussa Productions, also a speaker for international brands, he develops Dramatic Writing, Scriptwriting, Performances and Theater. He currently based in Berlin.