Nalini Elvino De Souza, from Panjim, is a great storyteller. Every little aspect that she comes across in her life, through work or travels, has a huge impact on her and she translates this seamlessly through her programmes for RTP-Portuguese television. Her second documentary film, ‘The Club’ shows the same passion as she travelled and spoke to Goans settled in Tanzania, especially in Dar es Salaam, and she was recently awarded for her hardwork at the 16th Jaipur International Film Festival (JIFF) with the second prize in the documentary category. She was also a part of the delegates for the traditional lighting of the lamp. The first prize in the category was awarded to Ruan Magan’s film ‘Steps of Freedom - The Story of Irish Dance’ from Ireland.
De Souza’s first
documentary film ‘Special Envoy’ was based on the life of Aquino de Bragança,
who died in a tragic plane crash on October 19, 1986. He was a Goan physicist,
journalist and diplomat who played an important role in the campaign for the
decolonialisation of Mozambique from its colonial power, Portugal. While
screening her film, ‘Special Envoy’, in Dar es Salaam in 2017, along with Dr
Pedro Sobral Pombo, an anthropologist from Portugal, for a conference, they
decided to visit Zanzibar on their free day. “We immediately fell in love with
the place. During the day, I received a lot of messages from Goans, who were
born in Zanzibar and had left when they were children. They had wonderful
memories of the place and we started to realise the dimension of the community
of Goans in Zanzibar and later in Dar es Salaam. That is how we decided that we
had to make a documentary about it,” says De Souza. Dr Pombo was not involved
in the production of ‘Special Envoy’ but he accompanied De Souza for the
discussions about the film because of his extensive knowledge of the Afro-Asian
circulations in the Indian Ocean.
“I am a filmmaker and
he is an anthropologist and I thought that making a documentary together would
be interesting. I feel interdisciplinary work is important because we start
looking at the world around us from a different perspective and I think this is
visible in this documentary. Goans migrated to Africa in search of work and
those who had studied in English had their value recognized immediately by the
British. Not only they knew English, but they were also Catholics and they
ended up having more privileges than may be the rest of the Asians who migrated
there,” says De Souza.
After receiving
funding from RTP-Portuguese television, they started shooting in Tanzania in
December 2019 and January 2020. “We faced budget challenges, since shooting and
editing is quite costly, and as we had traveled to Tanzania, the budget had to
be very well organised. We also faced some technical challenges in Dar es
Salaam, as it is expected when working in a place we were not acquainted with.
Fortunately, we met with extraordinary people who were kind to share their
stories with us, and the difficulties were overcome by the number of
extraordinary stories we gathered and the places we visited, ” explains De
Souza.
The film uses the
centenary celebrations of the club in Dar es Salaam as its focus but it delves
into the lives of the Goans who were born there. The Club, Dar es Salaam
Institute, known for the short form DI, is a building that stands out from all
other buildings in the capital of Tanzania. It was designed by architect
Anthony Almeida. It used to be called the Goan Institute but after the
independence of Tanzania, it had to change its name for it to survive. The club
could no longer serve only Goans; it had to open doors to all Tanzanians and
that is how it changed its name and survived till today. “There are around 300
to 350 members at the DI at present and the president, Tina D’Mello Sequeira
was very helpful. She introduced me to the members and I interviewed her as
well for the documentary,” says De Souza.
Fortunately for De
Souza, she had read the book, ‘Waiting for the Sunrise: Goan Jazz Music in Dar
es Salaam’ by Judy Luis-Watson which provides a view of the Goan experience in
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania of the 1950s and 1960s through the lens of music. De
Souza says, “It was with this book that I understood how important Goans were in
the music scenario of Dar es Salaam. Judy’s help in this documentary was very
important. She shared with us many photos of the music bands of the time.
Judy’s father played for the Jazz Swingers who were very famous in the 50’s and
after the Jazz Swingers many other groups were formed. ”
De Souza had the
chance to interview noted Goans like Alison and Lianne, the daughter and
granddaughter of late Anthony Almeida, Steve Siqueira and Mervyn Lobo. “We had
the opportunity to interview musicians who actually played at the DI and one of
them is Steve Siqueira. He had played at the DI several times before leaving
the city at the age of 19. Mervyn Lobo was another important interviewee in
this documentary as he shared invaluable archival material, photos and videos,
not only of musicians but also of the dances that used to be organized at the
DI and many other events,” adds De Souza
Pombo says, “DI is
still quite active and the community is smaller than in the 70s, of course, but
existent and dynamic. There is also another community with an active club in
Arusha and despite not having a formal club, in Zanzibar island, Goan-origin
Tanzanian still keep in contact and live a sense of community, also through the
life around the cathedral and catholic faith and meetings.”
The
pre-release screening was held at Bayreuth University, Germany. The next
screening was at DI, “Pedro and I decided that the first official screening
should be at the Dar Es Salaam Institute. Later the documentary was screened in
New York University, Abu Dhabi followed by VIC Art House in Aveiro, Portugal,
Mauritius and just last week at JIFF. The Club is also a nominee at the Pan
African Youth Film Festival. We hope to screen it soon in Goa since some of the
intervenients have not yet seen it. For those who want to know more, we have
created a page on FaceBook, ‘O Clube’, where we will announce the future
presentations of the documentary,” concludes De Souza.