‘Nothing will be like before‘. The title of the song written by Milton Nascimento and Ronaldo Bastos is perfect to describe the relevance of the album ‘Clube da Esquina’ (1972) for Minas Gerais music. After the release of the album, led by Bituca and the then young Lô Borges, nothing was the same as before. And it’s a little of this story that director Ana Rieper tries to rescue in her documentary ‘Nothing will be like before – The music of Clube da Esquina‘, which premieres this Thursday (28) in cinemas across Brazil.
In just over an hour, the documentary brings memories about the beginning of Bituca’s career, the unlikely meeting with Lô on the stairs of the Levy Building, in the center of Belo Horizonte, as well as details about the production of the songs, including a ‘ reaction’ of the separation of instruments in some of the song’s tracks and a ‘special masterclass’ by drummer Robertinho Silva, who participated in the recording of the album.
Check out the trailer below:
‘It’s the story of our lives’
In an exclusive interview with Itatiaia, Rio native Ana Rieper confesses that Clube da Esquina’s music has ‘constituted’ her since her adolescence, when a friend invited her to listen to the album ‘Clube da Esquina II’ (1978), which, according to her, brings great sophistication. The passion for the second album made her look for the first and fall in love with the work of that group of miners led, coincidentally, by a native from Rio.
‘I’m from Rio, but we had a group of friends who were from Minas Gerais. So the miners always took us to travel to Minas and, after listening to the Club, I discovered this world and loved it. Milton, Beto Guedes, Toninho Horta, Lô Borges. These are songs that rocked my youth.’
Beto Guedes, Milton Nascimento and Lô Borges: the biggest names at Clube da Esquina
Photographer: Cafi | Disclosure/Paladina Filmes
One of the highlights of the documentary is very rare footage of Clube da Esquina members performing together. Part of these recordings came from a special made by TV Band in 1974 and which, for decades, was kept in the broadcaster’s archive. Recordings made by European broadcasters also make up the production, as well as color videos of the Center of Belo Horizonte in the mid-20th century.
‘The image and archival material researcher, Antônio Venâncio, brought fantastic material. Perhaps he is one of the greatest experts in archive images in Brazil. We used this material from Band and TVs in Germany, Italy and also France. The imagery is beautiful. We had to leave a lot of things out, mainly for budgetary reasons’.
The production also features excerpts from films produced in Minas Gerais during the 1970s, including ‘Jardim de Guerra’, by Neville d’Almeida, considered the most censored film in the history of Brazilian cinema. Ana Rieper’s team even had a ‘special cameraman’: Márcio Borges, Lô’s brother and one of Clube da Esquina’s lyricists.
‘This was one of the ways our film incorporated the importance of cinema within Clube da Esquina, as a way of building the language of our own film. Marcinho is a filmmaker, he collaborated with the script and did the camera in some situations. The camera was piloted by one of our characters. An element of dynamism’.
After the release of ‘Nada Ser Como Antes’, Ana Rieper is already working on other productions, including a series about country music, another series about samba mothers and a feature film about sexuality from the point of view of funk , which should be called ‘Massa Funkeira’.
It’s a story of our lives. It is an important movement not only for Brazilian music, but also for world music. It’s a song that could be used in many films
Ana Rieper, director of ‘Nothing will be like before – The music of Clube da Esquina’
