Hi All,
Making of Champions does football! To round off 2013, we just wanted to bring you some news about a new documentary project leading up to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil! The Road to Brazil is the 2nd documentary from the MAKING OF CHAMPIONS’ stable!! Come with us on the journey of following the progress of Nigeria’s Super Eagles as they prepare for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil! In this Road to Brazil teaser, we journey to Salvador, Brazil’s third largest city – a city infused with food, culture, language and religion heavily influenced by Yoruba slaves taken there hundreds of years ago! We were in Salvador during the World Cup draw, and the World Cup FEVER and EXCITEMENT was palpable!! Here’s what Brazilians and an Argentinian fan there think about Nigeria’s chances at the World Cup!!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q80Ic8qyqC4]
The Making of The Road to Brazil: “Salvador”
The Road to Brazil was shot over 4 days in Salvador, during the period of the World Cup draw, where Nigeria was drawn against Argentina (once again!), Bosnia and Iran in Group F. It was an amazing journey of discovery – it was particularly fascinating to note the immense impact that Nigerian culture has had in this region Brazil, where most of it’s inhabitants proudly identify themselves as descended from Africa. They have their own versions of some typical Nigerian food like Akara and Moinmoin (called ‘Acaraje’ and ‘Abará’), and besides Christianity, the main religion practised here is Candomblé, which developed as a form of ‘Syncretism’ between Catholicism and the traditional religion (mainly Yoruba) of the slaves who were taken to Brazil from Africa between 1549 and 1888, and were made to go to Catholic Church – instead they took each one of the Catholic Saints as one of their ‘Orishas’ (Yoruba gods), and Candomblé developed from there…
Not many people would know this in Nigeria, but interestingly, Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife in Nigeria offers a Portuguese degree, and every year for the past 20 years or more, they have sent a small group of students doing the course for a year abroad programme at UFBA (Universidade Federal da Bahia) in Salvador to master their grasp of the language. These students did an amazing job of supporting the Road to Brazil shoot, making themselves available to interview the locals in Portuguese and doing some translation work to help with English subtitles for the documentary! In the near future we’ll release some more Road to Brazil teasers, featuring these amazing exchange students sending the Super Eagles and all Nigerians messages of encouragement (in Portuguese) to come to Brazil to support the Super Eagles at the World Cup!
The icing on the cake for the Road to Brazil shoot was the involvement of former Nigerian International, Richard Owubokiri, in the project. Known fondly as Ricky in Brazil and Portugal, he achieved legend status in both countries, after being one of the top scorers in both the Brazilian league in the 80’s (with Vitoria Football Club of Salvador) and the Portuguese league in the early 90’s (with Boavista). Indeed, the contrasting story of his careers for club and country and why his fortunes at International level for Nigeria did not quite match his glittering, prolific club career, is one of the untold stories of Nigerian football that we will bring you in The Road to Brazil: “Salvador”!
Watch this space in early 2014 for more news on The Road to Brazil – More pictures and video teasers coming soon! In the meantime, share this teaser – all Nigerians need to see this and get behind the Super Eagles to do wonders at the World Cup – “In the final – Nigeria and Brazil!”
