To help to satisfy the demand of people travelling to Brazil who would like to have the information on www.braziltheguide.com to hand, even when the are off-line, we have published a text only Kindle version of the guide that can be purchased globally from Amazon.
In the UK the guide sells for just £2.58. To access UK Amazon CLICK HERE
It is at a similar low price on Amazon stores around the world. For links to all the various global stores CLICK HERE
Julien Temple’s “Rio 50 Degrees”, in part developed by Critical Divide, the publisher of Brazil the Guide, received its world premiere screening as the opening gala of the BBC’s Art Screen Festival at the Glasgow Film Theatre on 10 April.
The film, which takes a look at Rio de Janeiro as the city prepares to host two of the world’s most high-profile events: the FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, will be broadcast on the BBC as part of Alan Yentob’s Imagine series.
Julien Temple with the BBC’s Kirsty Wark
With a samba based on the life and times of Brazilian Formula One great, Ayrton Senna, Unidos da Tijuca drove to victory as the top samba school in Rio de Janeiro for 2014.
The very last of the twelve top samba school to parade, Unidos da Tijuca won a very close fought contest with Salgueiro, winning by just 0.1 of a point out of 300. The winner in 2013, Vila Isabel, could only manage tenth place in 2014.
Placing is important as the winning school can choose when it will parade the following year. The next school has second choice, and so on, until the one school coming up from the second division, Viradouro in 2015, gets the spot that is left.
Normally the school choose to go late on, even last if they can, but there is a danger in going last as if for any reason the parade gets delayed, and it has been known to happen, then the last school may be going out in the first light of dawn or even daylight. Like a rock concert, that can make a big difference to the visual impact.
As well as the theme of Ayrton Senna, themes in 2014 included African rhythms (Imperio da Tijuca); the city of Marica (Grande Rio); Rio’s favelas, the city’s famous shanty towns (São Clemente); Brazilian celebrations (Mangueira); sustainability and preservation (Salgueiro); a tribute to one of Brazil most famous television executives, Bonifácio de Oliveira Sobrinho, o Boni (Beija-Flor); Pernambuco (Mocidade Independente de Padre Miguel); children’s toys (União da Ilha); Brazil’s natural and historical heritage (Vila Isabel),; Zico, one of Brazil’s greatest footballers and part of the best Brazilian team not to win the World Cup (Imperatriz Leopoldinense); and Avenida Rio Branco (Portela).
The full results for 2014 were:
Good news for travellers heading for Rio de Janeiro. The city’s main international airport, Aeroporto Internacional Tom Jobim (Galeão) has been bought by the company that operates the award winning Singapore Changi Airport (photo), in partnership with the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. The concession is for 25 years, and the new group promises some quick fixes for the aging airport before a major investment in improving facilities at the airport.
The company responsible for operating Zurich and Munich airports, in partnership with Brazil’s CCR, has bought Belo Horizonte’s Confins airport, which brings to a total of five the major Brazilian airports privatised by the government. The other three being Guarulhos and Viracopos in São Paulo, and Brasília.
Festival do Rio, South America’s largest and most important film festival, has unveiled the line up for Première Brasil. Première Brasil is the only competitive section of Festival do Rio with jury prizes to be presented at the end of the festival. Three highly prized audience awards will also be bestowed on the best Brazilian feature film, best documentary and best short film.
Première Brasil, which has as its festival home the historic Odeon Petrobras (photo) in Cinelandia in downtown Rio de Janeiro, is the beating heart of Festival do Rio, and the best annual global showcase of contemporary Brazilian cinema.
This year’s Première Brasil includes eleven feature films, eight feature length documentaries and seventeen shorts in competition. A further three features and five documentary features will screen hors concours, while other Brazilian productions will screen in special Première Brasil sidebars such as Portraits and New Trends.
PREMIÈRE BRASIL | FICTION | COMPETITION
PREMIÈRE BRASIL | DOCUMENTARIES | COMPETITION
PREMIÈRE BRASIL | FICTION | HORS CONCOURS
PREMIÈRE BRASIL | DOCUMENTARIES | HORS CONCOURS
The list of headline acts for Rock in Rio, which takes place in Rio de Janeiro from 13 to 22 September 2013, is complete and the festival is a sell-out.
For the main World Stage we have confirmed:
Living Colour (13th), The Offspring (14th), George Benson (15th) and Ben Harper (20th) are among the international acts confirmed for the Sunset Stage.
For the Electronic stage, the line up is:
Las Iguanas, already established as the UK’s leading collection of Latin American restaurants and bars, is bringing an extra touch of the tastes and spirit of Rio de Janeiro to Britain to brighten up the summer of 2102.
As of 27 July, and in time for the London Olympics, Rio Botequims have been popping up all over the UK in Las Iguanas restaurants in partnership with the Rio Convention & Visitors Bureau, Riotur, TAM Airlines and others.
The choice of Las Iguanas to feature Rio de Janeiro – the world’s most glamorous and exciting tropical city – is no accident as it is Rio that in 2016 will be the next city to host the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games after London.
And before 2016, Brazil and Rio will also be hosting the Confederations Cup in 2013, along with the Judo World Championship and the Canoe Sprint World Championships. Then in June and July 2014, the eyes of world will be on Brazil and Rio for the 20th FIFA World Cup.
So there has never been a better time in Britain to get in step, find the Carioca rhythm, and learn a little bit more about Rio de Janeiro and Brazil, and the tastes and spirit that help the city and country tick.
So how do you describe what a botequim (“bo-teh-king”) is to the British?
It is far too simple to suggest that a botequim is the Brazilian equivalent of the British pub, but it is a legitimate heir to the old taverns, serving food in healthy portions at accessible prices. Botequims are part of the cultural identity of Rio de Janeiro, and developed from the Spanish bodega and Portuguese botica to emerge as the Brazilian boteco – or botequim – in the second half of the 19th century.
A botequim is essentially a place to eat, drink and be merry. A place for friendly and lively conversation, good company, tasty and interesting food, and drinks that range from coffee to caipirinhas, via a cerveja gelada, or an ice-cold Brahma beer. A botequim is also a state of mind.
In the spirit of the Rio botequims, Las Iguanas is inviting its customers across the UK to come and enjoy the tastes and spirit of Rio this summer, and discover how to be a Carioca, as the residents of Rio are known.
As well as offering customers in all its restaurants the opportunity to try a special menu – Rio Botequim Seleção – Las Iguanas, the Rio Convention & Visitors Bureau, and their partners are also staging a number of culinary, cultural and sporting activities over the period of the Olympics, especially in London at the Royal Festival Hall, O2, Spitalfields, and Stratford Westfields restaurants.
Wednesday, 1 August, will see a gathering of the UK travel trade and media for lunch at the “Rio Botequim” in the Las Iguanas Royal Festival Hall, while the same venue will also host a reception for the UK film industry on Thursday, 2 August.
There is also the opportunity in all the Las Iguanas restaurants for customers to win trips to Rio de Janeiro to discover the city, and enjoy its warmth, hospitality and beauty, as well as the city’s many botequims, restaurants, clubs and bars, and the beach.
And just as the success of the Brazilian football team has always been built on teamwork, so will the success of the Rio Botequim programme. Joining the Rio Convention & Visitors Bureau and Las Iguanas are Riotur, the Secretary of Sport for Rio, Rio Film Commission, Sport TV and TAM Airlines, among others. Together the partners are all looking and planning to help make it a “Carioca” summer for Britain to remember.
For more details of what is happening at the Rio Botequims and in Las Iguanas over the Olympic period, visit the Las Iguanas web site, www.iguanas.co.uk; follow on Twitter (@las_Iguanas or @RioDiary) or Facebook (www.facebook.com/pages/Las-Iguanas/48003656683).
The city of Rio de Janeriro was elected by UNESCO on 1 July 2012 to be a World Heritage Centre. The reason given by UNESCO was for Rio’s iconic landscape and setting.
Rio is the 19th Brazilian World Heritage Centre.
The full list is:
Cultural
Natural
It has been announced at the Cannes Film Festival that Rio de Janeiro based TV Zero has joined forces with the UK’s Film and Music Entertainment (F&ME) to produce Streetkids United II. It is one of two films announced in Cannes that will focus on life in Rio de Janeiro.
The film is the follow up to the hugely successful Streetkids United and will be made to coincide with the second Street Child World Cup that is being organized by the Amos Trust and the ABC Trust prior to the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
“In 2014 Rio de Janeiro will play host to the second Street Child World Cup and will look to build on the success of the inaugural tournament that took place in Durban prior to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa,” explains F&ME’s Sam Taylor. “The 2014 event will bring teams of street children together from 20 countries to compete and to make their voices heard. As with the first Streetkids United film – our goal is to tell the story of the children and the event – and through it draw the world’s attention to the terrible plight of street children across the globe, and the fact that these children are somebody.”
The 2014 Street Child World Cup will be hosted by the Action for Brazil’s Children’s Trust, a UK registered NGO that is dedicated to helping street children and the most vulnerable young people in Brazil. The charity’s patrons include Pelé, Fernando Meirelles, Jimmy Page, Brian May, Jeremy Irons and Juliette Lewis.
“We are currently working with TV Zero to find the right Brazilian director for the project. To get right to the heart of the issue we want a director that will become fully entrenched and deeply involved in the lives of the street child community in Rio,” producer Mike Downey told Brazil the Guide. “About the only challenge we won’t have is finding a Brazilian director with an interest and knowledge of football.”
Founded in 1991, TV Zero is one of Brazil’s most successful and dynamic production houses that in 2011 was responsible for Bruna Surfistinha that sold over 2 million admissions and grossed over US$10 million at the Brazilian box office.
“As a production company we have produced a number of films that deal with both football and social inequality,” says TV Zero’s Rodrigo Letier. “It will be an incredible experience to link these important themes in the sequel to an already very successful film. Sadly street children are an important part of life in Rio, but it will be a great experience to share an uplifting story about them for a change”.
Children of the Revolution: This is Rio
TV Zero is already working with Taylor and Downey’s F&ME on Julien Temple’s highly anticipated music documentary feature Children of the Revolution: This is Rio, which begins shooting later this year in Rio de Janeiro. In Cannes, where it was chosen by Variety as one of the Brazilian film projects to watch, it was announced that the project has now been joined by Cologne-based production outfit 2Pilots.
Julien Temple filming in Rio de Janeiro
The German producers, Arne Ludwig and Joerg Siepmann, will bring a key part of the final financing to complement the existing funding from RioFilme, world sales company Ealing Metro International, and support from a number of Rio based audiovisual production and promotional funds.
2Pilots has also brought on board German distributor Rapid Eye Movies to release the film theatrically in Germany and is in an ‘advanced stage of negotiations with German broadcasters.’
The documentary, which has been written by Temple, Helen Beltrame and Chris Pickard, will look at the musical, social, political, and cultural revolutions that have taken place in Rio since the late 1960s to today.
The film, which is fully prepped, is expected to start shooting in September after Temple has finished the release schedule for his London Olympic feature, BabyLon/don. Temple has already been scouting in Rio where he met and talked with Seu Jorge, Lenine, Nelson Motta, Roberto Medina, Kassin + Berna, Sanny Pitbull and B Negao, among others, as well as getting reacquainted with old friends from the time he shot with the Sex Pistols and Mick Jagger in Rio.
The exciting and talented young Brazilian chef, Bel Coelho, has made a quick visit to London, along with one of Brazil’s leading sommeliers, Arthur Azevedo.
Bel and Arthur were in the UK to showcase the onboard catering of TAM Airlines. Bel is responsible for having developed over 800 different options and combinations of dishes to be served across the airline’s international services during 2012. To Arthur falls the responsibility of selecting the wines to compliment the new menus.
Bel Coelho, Sue Faithfull (TAM UK), Arthur Azevedo
Bel is considered one the most exciting chefs of her generation in Brazil. Since cooking at home as a little girl, and then later working with major names from the global gastronomic scene, she has developed a special care for the ingredients she uses and for the visual presentation of the dishes. All of which has helped make her restaurant, Dui, one of São Paulo and South America’s very best and most sought after.
Bel says her menus offer passengers meals that are a well-balanced combination of functional, whole and organic ingredients, which are prepared to give nutrient-rich dishes with a feeling of lightness, well-being and satisfaction.
To match some of Bel’s more sophisticated dishes, Arthur has looked to source top-quality wines from different countries, focusing mainly on the most important wine making regions of Europe. The highlights include in First Class the white, Dr. Bürklin-Wolff Pechstein Grand Cru from Pfalz in Germany, and amongst the reds, La Croix Figeac (St. Émilion/Bordeaux/ France). For Business Class the selection includes the white wine Dr. Bürklin-Wolff Wachennheimer Altenburg Premier Cru and the red, Jean-Luc Thunevin Château Bel-Air-Ouÿ (St. Émilion/Bordeaux/France). Economy Class passengers have not been overlooked and the selection for long-haul flights includes two modern and affordable South American wines. The Callia Alta Malbec and the Callia Alta Chardonnay from San Juan in Argentina.
Arthur’s selection of wines has been picking up international awards for both him and TAM. Most recently Arthur and TAM won two of the top categories in Business Traveller’s prestigious “Cellars in the Sky” awards. The Brazilian airline received the award for best red wine served in First Class (Clos Canon 2008), and as the airline with the most improved First Class wine cellar.
World Class Dining
On the gastronomic front it has also been announced that Alex Atalal’s São Paulo restaurant, D.O.M., has been rated as the fourth best in the world and the top restaurant in South America by Restaurant Magazine’s list of the world’s top 50 eateries in 2012.
D.O.M. São Paulo
According to the magazine, D.O.M.’s principal aim is to champion produce from Brazil and the Amazonian region, from everyday palm hearts and cassava to obscure finds from the rainforest. More familiar European fine-dining fare gets a look-in, but often in a supporting role.
Other Brazilian’s restaurants to be rated in the world’s top 100, include Mani in São Paulo, whose chef, Helena Rizzzo, developed TAM’s menu back in 2010; and Roberta Sudbrack in Rio de Janeiro.
Brazil the Guide 