the “portrait of the Lisbon of tomorrow”, already today
Gil do Carmo cuts through the Arroios neighborhood with the skill of a biologist: attentive to details, collecting images, smells, flavors, sounds and affections. It’s actually just a musician. A musician whose lineage is from lovers of Lisbon – the father was Carlos do Carmo, grandmother Lucília. And maybe that’s why nothing escapes the urban explorer: the bustle of the neighborhood public market, the nimble fingers of the barber, the steady hand of the baker, an informal conversation between friends on a street corner, the innocence of children, prayer in a strange language, a sign of faith in a god, the same faith that Gil do Carmo devotes to men.
The tour through Lisbon’s most multicultural neighborhood was recorded in a short film called In the Lisbon of Tomorrow, starred, narrated and “sung” by Gil do Carmo, available on the internet since December 28th.
The 18-minute documentary is the audiovisual unfolding of the single Whole world, a work that technologically ends a “miracle” – but there we go – and conceptually addresses the Lisbon of tomorrow in the title where, as the chorus of the song sings, from Martim Moniz to Areeiro, the whole world fits here.
“The idea of the short film is to show Arroios not only as a place but in fashion of Lisbon, but also the most inclusive. A true reflection of what the Lisbon of tomorrow will be like”, explains the singer about the Lisbon neighborhood which, in about two square kilometers, is home to almost a hundred nationalities.
To help him translate the spirit of his song into video, Gil do Carmo had the expertise of director Diogo Borges and producer Antonio Buscka, from BairroUpFilms.
Both already prepared, worked with him on the video clip in Whole world, also released in 2021, in which Gil do Carmo rides his bicycle through Arroios while images of the faces of dozens of immigrants are projected virtually on the buildings along the road.
“It took days and days to shoot, a demanding routine, but carried out spontaneously, like family work.”
“The result, do clip it was so good that we thought of a way to expand it. Then I commented to Diogo: why not make a short one, telling the story of Arroios? ”, recalls Gil. The proposal was accepted by the director and what followed were two months of work and hours and more hours of recording.
“I was just the common thread in this story. It took days and days to shoot, a demanding routine, but performed spontaneously, like a family job”, he summarizes, exaggerating his modesty. In addition to starring in the documentary, he was also responsible for the text he reads in voice off and like songs from the movie.
“I was very surprised with the final result. It is engaging and translates this Lisbon directly and simply to Lisboners, Portuguese and the world. ”
Return to the future in a duet with a grandmother
And which Lisbon is this? The one Gil’s father became anthem? That the grandmother also sang? Yeah, that’s not all the single-inspired short film, Whole world, and that it is a reunion with the grandmother made possible thanks to the aforementioned “miracle” of technology.
The concept of using recordings from the past to perform a duet with a deceased singer is not new, it’s true. Gil do Carmo’s duo with a grandfather has the differential of being built from his own lyrics, added to two fados recorded by his grandmother, the boys eyes and Craziness.
“Where you hear my voice, it’s the unpublished lyrics, where you hear my grandmother’s voice, the clipping recovered from the two fados she recorded”, he explains. In other words, the result of this affective-musical journey through time was not a new version of an old song, but the creation of a new song that does not point to the past, but, when addressing the theme of migrations, looks to the future.
A work consistent with a recent production of the singer. “THE single it adds up to other of my fados, attentive to the miscegenation of the world. The differential was the electronic reading, the varnish more techno”, explains Gil do Carmo.
Whole world will be on the disc to be released in the spring of 2022, in celebration of his 25-year career.
The short film In the Lisbon of Tomorrow is available and an opportunity, according to the singer, to realize that the “tomorrow” suggested in the title is indicative of the present. “It is very important, fundamental, understanding that the Lisbon of today in Arroios will be, without a doubt, the Lisbon of tomorrow.”
Alvaro Filho
Brazilian journalist and writer, 48 years old, in Lisbon for five. He was a reporter, columnist and editor for Jornal do Commercio, correspondent for Folha de S. Paulo, sports commentator for SporTV and CBN radio, in addition to writing for O Corvo and Diário de Notícias. He covered World Cups, Olympics, adaptation, protests – in a “mobile journalism” project called Repórtatil – and now it’s time to cover and, mainly, discover Lisbon.