Caymmi’s essence captured in documentary: ‘I learned to like myself by liking others’

Caymmi’s time. Finding him was essential for director Daniela Broitman. After delving into television archives in search of reports and interviews from Dorival Caymmi (1914-2008), she realized that the fragments she found here and there were unable to explain the artist who stopped to listen to the noise of the wind on a boat’s sail and the sound of the waves; at low tide. Nothing to do with that prejudiced joke about “Caymmi speed”, in reference to her Bahian origin.

The solution thought up by the director to stitch together the documentary Dorival Caymmi – A Man of Affection, which hit theaters on April 25th, in the month in which the composer would have turned 110 years old – he was born on April 30th, 1914 -, he sought something completely new and intimate. It found. A kind of interview forgotten in the archive of a bankrupt production company for years. A very informal meeting that took place in 1998, at the home of Marcelo Machado, a great friend of the composer.

“It was essential that the film had this silence, listening to him and representing him. Having the personality, the soul of Caymmi. I didn’t just want to give my point of view, even though a work always has a lot about its author. Caymmi guided me a lot. I felt connected to him”, says Daniela, who never met the composer.

It is in this material that Caymmi says something perhaps much greater than her wise advice to those who have never been to Bahia. “I learned to like myself by liking others.” At another point, he confesses that he composed as if he were speaking “for his people”. Thus, the man of affection is in place.

Another previously unreleased excerpt shows scenes from a rehearsal at Tom Jobim’s house. The two sing together. “They are not technically perfect images, but they have a great meaning”, says Daniela.

Daniela chose, contrary to what happens in many documentaries, to greatly restrict the number of testimonies. Children Nana, Dori and Danilo, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, grandson Gabriel, former daughter-in-law and composer Ana Terra, music producer Guto Burgos and former family cook Cristiane Oliveira. All very close to Caymmi. “I didn’t want experts in music, analysis, etc.”, points out the director.

The film, says Daniela, also has the mission of introducing Caymmi’s music to a new generation. Caetano analyzes that Tropicália has echoes of the Bahian composer. Gil says: “I’m his flow.”

Dori, his middle son, states in the documentary that excellent Brazilian guitarists, such as Jobim, Baden Powell and Luiz Bonfá, tried to reproduce the “flavor” of Caymmi’s guitar. “They never did,” he says.

“One of my intentions was to make Caymmi’s legacy known to new generations. Everyone sings Caymmi and doesn’t know it”, says Daniela. The film had its premiere at the É Tudo Verdade festival, in 2019. It then went to countries such as France, Portugal, Italy and Poland.

Dora, Marina, Rosa Morena…and Stella

The documentary Dorival Caymmi – A Man of Affection he also looks at Caymmi “from the front door inside”, as Stella, his wife of more than 60 years and with whom he had his three children, used to refer. These are moments that cast doubt on the composer’s inspirations for the songs that are named after or talk about women.

Marinathe one from the samba song in which he asks you not to paint your face, existed or the inspiration came from an innocent phrase that his son Dori, as a boy, said whenever he felt angry about something: “I’m mad at you!”. The Girl Next Doorthe one who “moves the chairs” here and there dressed in a maroon dress, was that just Caymmi’s imagination?

Nana, away from the stage since 2015, in one of the documentary’s sublime moments, sings a cappella There is no solution. Caymmi’s lyrics begin with the lines “a new love happened/ that couldn’t happen/ it wasn’t time to love/ now, what am I going to do?”. For her, there is no greater proof than what her father did from the door out.

The singer was the one who most felt the weight of the contradictions of the human being Caymmi. When her first marriage ended, she heard from her father: “My daughter, don’t leave your husband.” Peace was made seven years later, with an invitation for Nana to accompany him on a television program. No explanations. Just the nod that the sentimental exile was over.

All of these statements may seem somewhat banal in light of Caymmi’s work and the very intention of Daniela Broitman’s documentary. It is not. Journalist, documentary filmmaker and therapist – she also directs Marcelo Yuka on the Path of Arrows -, Daniela states that she prefers to go deeper. “I like to showcase the non-celebrity artist. Looking at him off stage In Caymmi’s case, the husband, the father, the friend. All its complexity,” she says.

These extra-music stories draw another character as important as Caymmi. An omnipresent presence in the composer’s direction – and in the documentary itself: his wife Stella. The former singer, in addition to overcoming her husband’s mistakes, framed Vinicius de Moraes when he wanted to give up the successful season he was doing alongside Caymmi in a nightclub in Rio de Janeiro, and encouraged João Gilberto to lose his fear of flying , demanded silence from his children when their father began to raise them and gave the final say on whether Caymmi, already weakened by age, should go to Bahia to receive an award.

“A lot of people tell me: ‘but Stella doesn’t say anything, she only appears at the end’. I think it’s even stronger [essa opção]. And it’s mentioned all the time. Gil talks about her. Stella’s role in Caymmi’s life becomes very clear”, analyzes Daniela.

It was Stella, already hospitalized, who assigned her confidant Cristiane Oliveira the task of being by Caymmi’s side until his death, in an apartment in Copacabana, just a few meters from the beach. Stella and Caymmi died eleven days apart, without either knowing the other was gone. With the matriarch’s permission, Caymmi died holding Cristiane’s hand.

A spoiler: the documentary Dorival Caymmi – A Man of Affection ends with never-before-seen images from the honoree’s 88th birthday. Maracangalha It is the music that leads the viewer to the conclusion of the film’s 90-minute narrative.

It is also the song that takes Caymmi to her Pasargadae. Where time and affection are free from any judgment.