Rafaela Silva

ROLES: Entire Production [Filmmaker, video editor, colorist, sound editor]

Produced for my Final Term Paper project during my Digital Design college at PUCPR, Dançar a Curitiba is an experimental video and documentary about Hip Hop in Curitiba, my hometown. Its cinematography and editing were both designed and executed to visually represent how the Hip Hop culture affects the city and how the city affects Hip Hop culture in return.

Focusing mainly on the dance element, several Hip Hop dancers were interviewed to discover what dance represents to them and how it transforms them as people. Each interview was superimposed one on top of the other as their responses resembled each other, forming a background noise like what we hear every day in an urban environment.

Just as Hip Hop occupies and transforms several urban spaces in the city of Curitiba, the dancers of Dançar a Curitiba also construct and reconstruct the video with their dance. They also bring more color and their movements leave their mark. In contrast, the city of Curitiba provides not only the spaces and the people, but also a local culture that influences the way the dance develops and spreads.

In a unique and fun way, Dançar a Curitiba seeks to provide an artistic experience with the aim of presenting Hip Hop culture in Curitiba and, mainly, provoking reflection among dancers and artists from other places and cultures to ask themselves: how are I and my art affected by our environment and vice versa?

Dançar a Curitiba – The Rhythm of Hip Hop won the award for Best Documentary Video at the second edition of MOVA – University Audiovisual Festival at UTFPR.