Documentary film "CIRCLESONGS : a deep playful journey in music, body and soul"

OBJECTIVE REACHED AT 128%!!! OUR CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN ON THIS PLATFORM HAS ENDED AND YOU WOULD LIKE TO CONTRIBUTE? YOU CAN DO SO VIA THE FOLLOWING LINK: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=PX9PKH3DNLZD8 " Have you ever sung and created with dozens of people you didn't know? " This is a story of a dream that awakened within me. My name is Line Tafomat, world traveler, vocalist and teacher passionate about collective vocal experiences. Circlesongs, popularised by Bobby McFerrin, are a collective and improvised vocal practice that brings together beginners and advanced singers to play music in the literal sense while experiencing life together. This experience of singing in the moment, collectively and in a circle, is an experience that is remembered for a long time. That's why I wanted to make a film. To witness the diversity of the circlesongs, its expansion and its imprint they leave in the heart of each of us. To reflect on what words can barely describe. Circlesongs fulfill our fundamental social needs for belonging and connection, the very needs that are often neglected by modern society since we are disconnected from our ancient wisdom. In this same movement, we create bridges to meet our inner selves and to truly meet the other, in our authenticity, in our vulnerability, in our humanity. Welcome to the heart of circlesongs. ©DudaMoraisFotografia ****** So... What are circlesongs ? => shape and essence According to Camille Pascal, organiser of the international retreat The Enchanted Circle, which is held every summer in the French Ardèche, " the circlesong is a musical structure inspired by the singer Bobby McFerrin, in which a person stands in the centre of a group arranged in a circle and freely improvises small musical patterns (loops) which he or she assigns to parts of the circle and which evolves according to his or her inspiration. " In essence, it is about singing and being together, creating here and now, daring to come as one is, making one's body a musical instrument in its own right, allowing oneself to try, to fail, to restart, to nourish one's connection to oneself, to others, to one's environment. => Depending on the facilitator and the objectives, Circlesongs are a multidimensional tool used for: ° Teaching and learning music in order to work on rhythm, harmony, precision, listening, the musical ear, accuracy, physical involvement, creativity, composition, arrangement, orchestration, improvisation... ° Team-building to create connections and do things together, to cooperate, to include, to unite, to connect, to welcome the other... ° Stage performance to offer spontaneous and original forms where the public is a spect-actor, to create "live & direct", literally... ° Personal growth to enable the discovery of one's voice, self-expression, to unleash one's qualities, to honour one's limits, to widen one's comfort zone... ° Therapeutic support to balance the body-mind-soul relationship, to enhance social skills, to develop creativity and self-esteem... and probably many other fields of application... ****** Once upon a time... the genesis of the film => from choir to circlesongs I discovered Bobby McFerrin at the same time that I discovered Zap Mama, gospel choirs and Jamaican sound systems. I was then 20 years old when I happily navigated these singular universes where voices are used as expressive instruments used without words, where sounds are meaningful and where polyphony, a capella, groove and improvisation go together. In 1997, when Bobby McFerrin, of who I am a fan, released his album "Circlesongs", I said to myself "Wow... So there is a name for what I'm doing". And I have also realized that I am not the only weirdo doing this. Not even close. The years that followed I became a professional vocalit, with a growing interest in teaching on the one hand, and a desire to find musical forms that transcend the idea of performance to move towards the experience of organic and inclusive music. => the wake up call : Bobby McFerrin's Circlesongs retreat, August 2017 and 2019, Rhinebeck, NY (USA) Every summer since 2004, the annual Circlesongs retreat led by Bobby McFerrin has taken place in the United States. I had been hearing about it for years and dreaming of attending. This came true for the first time in 2017 and again in 2019. Gaël Aubrit, co-founder of the citizen's movement Chant pour tous, told me so: it is a "life changing experience". In the words of Gaël, Bobby McFerrin is "often known for Don't Worry Be Happy”, but too rarely for his exceptional talents as an improviser, his virtuosity, his humor and his generosity. This extraordinary singer has revolutionized a cappella singing at the beginning of the 80's, by breaking the limits of the voice as a musical instrument, as well as putting the audience at the very heart of the show, drawing thousands of people into his delirious polyphonic improvisations (...)." This annual event brings together 150 people from all over the world, both amateurs and professionals, beginners and more advanced singers, all animated by the passion for singing and inspired by Bobby. (Bobby, Onome et moi - August 2017) Each time, I left this timeless week nourished, inspired and moved, vocally, musically, pedagogically and on a human level. And also reassured. What I had been practising for years in a discreet way had found there a powerful echo and an international fellowship. A profound feeling of being part of something greater than me. Through circlesongs, I have met my tribe. ©DudaMoraisFotografia On the second occasion in 2019, I realised even more deeply what a gift this experience is to and for humanity. A palpable feeling of being part of society, that another world is possible and that it is already here. I want to spread the word to everyone but words often fail me because as Zuza Gonçalves, co-founder of Musica do Circulo in Brazil, also a facilitator in Bobby McFerrin's annual retreats, sums it up so well: " Circlesongs are complicated to explain and obvious to experience ". And yet, given their impact on each person who experiences them, "it is of public utility and should be reimbursed by Health Insurance", I thought (and still think!). ****** So why make a film? I practice, create, conduct and facilitate circlesongs in France, Europe, Reunion Island and Brazil and wherever I go I make the same observation: Circlesongs encounter, inspire, gather and have a strong impact on their public. Although they remain confidential, today's circlesongs are plural and are constantly developing all over the world. According to the objectives they serve, they are invited in all types of environments, from music academies to theatre companies, from schools to retirement homes, from corporations to hospitals, on stages and in parks... > how to witness the impact of circlesongs, both at an individual and collective level? > how can we contribute to their expansion and make them known to the general public? > how to tell everyone, musicians or not, music lovers of all kinds, that there is an unlimited source of inspiration, ways of playing music, connecting to oneself and to others, of expressing the creative person in each of us, making musical what is really important? => Eureka! A film of course! More specifically, a documentary. A media at the junction of audio, visual and movement, to show this multisensory world, to gather the words of its actors and its participants, to hear the voices and to reflect the remarkable humanity which radiates in all its vulnerability. A living and moving documentary in which my accomplice AK follows me on my travels in France, Belgium, Reunion Island, Brazil and the United States. So, this documentary is filmed from the inside, to describe in images what words struggle to say, in which I share with you my vision and what has moved me so much over the years: the interaction between music and the relationship to oneself and to others. ****** Who is the film for? The film is aimed at the international community of circlesongs. This tribe of modern times, open, plural and multicultural, has been spreading all over the world. It is a film to show how this practice that we experience is part of a greater purpose than any of us, embracing us all. A film that shows what we often struggle to describe when talking about circlesongs for those unfamiliar with them (yet). It is also aimed at our contemporaries, who may or may not be musicians, in order to share another way of being, transmitting and learning music; to share the inherent values of circlesongs and the tremendous variety of purposes they serve, from learning music to living together. ©DudaMoraisFotografia ©DudaMoraisFotografia ©DudaMoraisFotografia ****** So what is the film about? This film shows what circlesongs are in concrete terms, i.e. "a musical structure that is practised in a circle", where the singers are placed, how the music begins and grows. This is a structure that recreates the conditions of a choir, but which also differs in the sense that the conductor is not just the artistic director of the composition, but also the author, the composer and the improviser. From the very beginning, it seemed important to us to film the plurality of approaches by interviewing several of the active and inspiring members of this eclectic tribe in order to highlight what differs, what brings them together, and what also challenges them. Such diversity appears clearly in those places where I have practised circlesongs. That is why we have decided to go there with the camera to share it with you. Finally, this film is about togetherness. In circlesongs, we sing of course, we create, we dare, we laugh a lot, we cry too, we're often afraid, we sometimes hide, we look, we listen, we dance, we play our bodies like the musical instrument they know how to be, we try, we fail, it appears that's how we grow. For a retreat, an evening or just a moment, we surprise ourselves with a different way of being a society. The voice of Andrée Chedid echoes: "you, whoever you are, are much closer to me than a stranger". ©TatiWexlerFotografia ****** The shooting and the team => THE MINDSET Abdul Karim Sangari, alias AK, co-director, and I share a strong intuition: the film must be filmed from the inside, like a circlesong. This does not mean that we write nothing, far from it, simply that the writing has to come along with the experience. Beyond a showcase, what we are offering is a journey. This is also a real challenge. Because we like to know where we are going and where we are going, to observe, anticipate, foresee, analyse and organise. Structure is a ground on which we can build. To take a step back and have a global vision, to build a professional, creative, human and committed team, to put a figure on the necessary funds and human and material resources. .... "They didn't know it was impossible, so they did it" - Mark Twain.... ©ULAProducciones => SHOOTING STEPS (January 2023 to October 2024) The movie is an interior, musical, cultural and geographical journey that passes through : ° Step 1: Mùsica do Circulo Retreat, January 2023, São Paulo, Brazil = DONE! The occasion was just too good to wait: -> Filming Mùsica Do Circulo in January 2023, specially because Zuza Gonçalves, Pedro Consorte and Ronaldo Crispim are the "special guests" of the Enchanted Circle in Summer 2023. Mùsica do Circulo Retreat gathers for one week a hundred of people of whom 60% are Brazilian / 40% international (Europe, USA, South America). By filming in January, the documentary project took on an international dimension (which I believe is in the DNA of circlesongs). To film Mùsico do Circulo to understand the anchoring of circlesongs into the cultural world of Brazilian music : Circlesongs are doing very well over there, as if naturally associated with a musical form which already exists in the Brazilian culture: folk songs. Folk songs are often sung in circles/clusters, almost in jam session mode, with improvised moments. From folk songs to circlesongs, there is only one step, which can explain the success of what Mùsico do Circulo proposes. -> Interviewing Zuza in his cultural environment. I met Zuza in 2017 and in 2019 at Bobby McFerrin's annual Circlesong retreats in which he was (and still is) one of the facilitators. Musician, singer, body percussionist, enlightened teacher, "circlelover", he inspires many of his peers in Brazil, the US and Europe. Leading 150 people, most of whom don't know each other, to play, to move, to dare to look at each other, to smile at each other while singing and clapping is an experience that has deeply marked me and continues to inspire me today. I met Zuza and Mùsica do Circulo at the same time. This was the kick-off of the filming of the movie, the adventure has begun and the road is long. Hence our crowdfunding campaign to help us realise the project, to gain autonomy and independence and to find the production company that will join us in this adventure. **** ° Step 2: Chant pour tous and Enchanted Circle Retreat, spring-autumn 2023, France -> End of May 2023 in French Lozère, the 7th meeting of Chant Pour Tous leaders will take place. This self-managed event brings together around thirty amateur and professional facilitators who have organised at least three Chants pour Tous in the previous year in their region. It enables them to meet each other, to exchange their experiences and tools, and to talk about the success and difficulties they have encountered. -> in July and August 2023, the 3rd edition of the Enchanted Circle retreat will be held in French Ardèche. After the success of the previous editions, two retreats have been organised this year, each welcoming 70 participants from all over Europe and from Brazil, 8 high-level facilitators (including the three founders members of Musica do Circulo). -> in Autumn 2023, we will film a Chant pour Tous that Line will animate in Nantes, her hometown and a Chant pour Tous in French Morbihan where Chant pour Tous animators are highly active to spread the practice and have come together to support each other. This tour of events between the French regions of Lozère, Ardèche and Brittany allows us to show the diversity of what is offered in France, to collect the points of view and approaches that contribute to the development of circlesongs in France. **** ° Step 3: Chant pour Tous Brussels, October 2023 -> Brussels is the city that has been offering the most circlesong events in the world over the past few years. Several Chants pour Tous per month, workshops, regular practice groups, weekly classes, concerts, events in cultural venues, indoor and outdoor, in music schools... And this is AK's home sweet home. By filming the circlesongs there, it is possible to understand how a city that was not very active in the sphere of improvised singing until 2017, literally blew up in this field. What are the social springs that have allowed such a spread? And how have the people of Brussels grasped this musical form, how do they use it to create social relationships, to explore the artistic dimension of vocal improvisation and to study music in a more playful manner than in the academies? **** ° Step 4: Immersive 6-day course in Line / Rond'kèr Sainte-Marie / Circlesongs and Maloya with Unis Vers Cité Péï, Reunion Island - April 2024 -> Réunion Island experienced its first circlesongs in 2017 at my initiative. On these southern lands, traditional music is called Maloya and gives pride of place to singing, percussion, dance, culture, ancestors, and social ties. Maloya is most often practised in a circle (called Ron' Maloya). Songs are collective and frequently improvised following the leader's inspiration. Are these the reasons why circlesongs are developing so well in Reunion Island? Since 2019, about twenty facilitators have been trained and have federated to offer workshops and events, spreading the practice all over the island, inviting themselves to beaches, to schools, to "ron Maloya", to companies, to hospitals... We want to film the cultural adaptation of circlesongs and how they are incorporated, even blended to a point of having been renamed "Rond'Kèr (literally Circle of Heart). -> Also because it is my second home on Earth, the place where my mother's family lives. Welcome home... **** ° Step 5: Circlesongs School and meeting Bobby McFerrin, Linda Goldstein and Rhiannon, Berkeley, California, USA - summer 2024 For sunbathing and surfing (but naaaaah... it's a joke). -> Shooting the Circlesong School (since 2022, the Omega Retreat in New York has become Berkeley in California) led by Bobby McFerrin, organised and produced by Linda Goldstein, his manager, animated by an international team of "circleleaders" all as talented as each other. We planned to go there in the Summer 2023, as I was invited by Linda Goldstein to be part of the pedagogical team this year (I almost hit the roof because I jumped for joy). But, back down to earth immediately as the Circlesongs School takes place simultaneously with the 3rd edition of the Enchanted Circle in which I am already involved as a facilitator. Ooooom... -> Interview Bobby himself and hear his thoughts on the growth and diversity of this art form that owes him so much. It is obvious to us that Bobby McFerrin has to be in the film. As the pioneer of circlesongs ("Circlesongs" was released in 1997), he is a source of inspiration for circleleaders around the world. -> To interview Linda Goldstein, Bobby's manager and producer for more than 40 years, and Rhiannon, vocalist and pedagogue, international figure of Circlesongs and collective vocal improvisation who has been working with Bobby for more than 25 years - to get their testimonies on the birth of Circlesongs that they experienced in real time while accompanying Bobby and to get their points of view on the lines of development of Circlesongs in the years to come. **** ° Step 6: Inna Onda Experience, Igatu, Bahia , Brazil - October 2024 -> Inna Onda" is both a collective born from the meeting of the Brazilian Mauricio Sprovieri and the French Creole Line Tafomat and a 360° approach to music in which we find the intrinsic values of circlesongs: body music, cooperative pedagogy, mindfulness, interculturality, collective intelligence and co-creation. -> What is the point of filming Inna Onda? Just like Mùsica Do Circulo and Chant pour Tous, Inna Onda is as much about the legacy of Bobby McFerrin as it is about the fact that it transcends it to offer a new form rooted in its time and yet open to the world. The disconnection from ancestral traditions inherent to our contemporary lifestyles also leads to an approach that mixes approaches, cultures, and individuals and that includes the musical, aesthetic, and social specificities of its members. **** In each place, I meet all kinds of people, artists, teachers, accountants, pharmacists, nurses, physiotherapists, coaches, administrative assistants, bakers, CEO, craftsmen, children and elders, farmers, disabled people, social loners, hypersensitive realists, modern time wanderers, hippy scientists, photographers, down-to-earth utopians, people who are passionate about collective singing and human relations and who are all "following their dreams because they know the way" (Kobi Yamada) (yes, I like quotes a lot) The team (from left to right : Mauricio Sprovieri, Line Tafomat, AK) Line Tafomat, writer, co-director, co-producer ©DudaMoraisFotografia Line is a vocalist, vocal coach, inspired educator, facilitator and teacher, passionate about a capella singing, groove, collective musical practice, vocal improvisation and pedagogy. Eclectic, globetrotting and versatile, she develops an intuitive approach to music consolidated by collaborations with artists from all artistic backgrounds and continuing education (eternal student!) with Bobby McFerrin, Allan Wright, Musica do Circulo or Laurent Kraif. In France and abroad, she organises events dedicated to collective singing and she works with artists, choirs, conservatories, local authorities, associations and individuals of all levels. Abdul Karim Sangari (AK), co-director, filmmaker, editor ©TatiWexlerFotografia To assist me in this thrilling adventure for anyone who is not a professional video maker, there is Abdul Karim Sangari, aka AK. Sensible and professional filmmaker, photographer, singer, dancer, carpenter, business coach, AK is as versatile as talented. Deeply moved by the circlesongs in 2021, I first met him through the beautiful videos he shot during the first Enchanted Circle in 2021 and then in person in July 2022. Our connection is clear, and a few weeks later, we were planning the 2023-204 shootings. **** Their support is invaluable to us: Mauricio Sprovieri, sound engineer Mauricio, my friend and talented colleague, has been a sound engineer for 15 years in Salvador, Brasil. He helps us to mix the sound recordings. Mauricio is also one of my most significant musical encounters, a brother soul with whom I share the same vision of music and pedagogy, deeply organic, authentic, inclusive, collective, conscious and spiritual while being artistically demanding. And he is an experienced music teacher, certified as a Taketina® teacher, dedicated to body music, rhythm pedagogy and sound healing. **** Claire Morgen, production consultant To help us with the production of the documentary, we are lucky to have Claire Morgen, a professional fundraiser who has fallen in love with circlesongs when she discovered them in a training course in September 2021. **** Association l'Âme Voyageuse (Travelling Soul Association), co-production Founded in Nantes in 2015, l'Âme Voyageuse organises circlesongs, collective improvisation and body music workshops, retreats and events throughout France, Reunion Island and Brazil. It aims to: ✓ To promote multiculturalism, creativity and the blossoming of each person through the arts in general and music in particular as a vector of social connection, openness to others and self-expression ✓ To meet, share and exchange around educational, cultural, musical and artistic practices, both amateur and professional ✓ To support musical and artistic creation in all its forms, in particular through training, meeting and expression of amateur and professional musicians on the territory as well as on an international scale The documentary project "Circlesongs - a depp playful journey in music, body and soul" is the first audiovisual project that the association is supporting. ****** Once the filming is over, it's all over? Que nenni... Absolutely not ! Afterwards, during and now there is : => writing tasks: voiceover, synopsis, intentional note, direction note, sequencing, translation... Yes, we have learned the terms ;-) => technical work: montage, colour grading, subtitles, sound mixing... => production work: budget, funds submission, sponsorship reserach, accounting, planning... => communication work: visuals, teasers, newsletters, writing, website, social media... ≥ It is for all this part that we are looking for a mindful and sensitive partnership with a production company whose values we share. ****** WHEN will the film be released? Late 2025-early 2026. Yeah, that's a long way off, and yes, it's tomorrow. So why is it taking so long? > Because shooting is spread over a two-year period ( 2023-2024), to coincide with the schedule of events we intend to film. > Because editing is (very) extensive. It requires breaks, time to step back and experiment, in order to maintain clarity and prevent the team from becoming overwhelmed. > Because, in addition to the shooting and editing, there is a great deal of work involved in distributing the film. > Because it takes time to raise the funds required.