Heaven's Mirror
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a Joshua Dylan Mellars film HEAVEN’S MIRROR A PORTUGUESE VOYAGE WORLD PREMIERE SANTA ROSA INTERNATIONAL WINE COUNTRY FILM FESTIVAL 2011 ABUELA LUNA PICTURES PRESENTS “HEAVEN’S MIRROR: A PORTUGUESE VOYAGE” ANA MOURA CAMANÉ MAFALDA ARNAUTH CARLOS DO CARMO KATIA GUERREIRO JOANA AMENDOEIRA TEREZA TAROUCA CELESTE RODRIGUES JORGE FERNANDO CARLOS GONÇALVES HELDER MOUTINHO CO-PRODUCERS ALEXANDER FREEMON ISSAC PAZHO JOSHUA SCHNEYER ASSOCIATE PRODUCER ROBERT ELLEMAN EXECUTIVE PRODUCER MOJIB AIMAQ WRITTEN, PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY JOSHUA DYLAN MELLARS www.HeavensMirrorMovie.com ABUELA LUNA PICTURES Presents HEAVEN’S MIRROR A PORTUGUESE VOYAGE DIRECTED BY JOSHUA DYLAN MELLARS Logline: Heaven’s Mirror embarks on a musical odyssey to plumb the meaning of saudade in Portuguese fado music; but as the filmmaker travels from Lisbon to Goa, from California to New England, he finds that his inner quest mirrors the sa- lient fado themes: the ephemerality of life, laments of lost loves and longings for other times and other places.!! World Premiere P.O. Box 29322 San Francisco CA 94129, USA • telephone: (1) 707.321.1600 • [email protected] www.heavensmirrormovie.com • www.abuelaluna.com • www.facebook.com/HeavensMirrorMovie ABUELA LUNA PICTURES Presents HEAVEN’S MIRROR A PORTUGUESE VOYAGE DIRECTED BY JOSHUA DYLAN MELLARS Synopsis (172 words) Heaven's Mirror is filmmaker Joshua Dylan Mellars' mystically wild and lushly romantic fado journey: the filmmaker travels from the ironwork bal- conies and narrow cobbled streets of Lisbon's Alfama to the cool bungalow porches of India’s Goa, from the salt sprayed clapboard of New England's former whaling ports to the dusty bullrings of Central California in search of the meaning of saudade, the essence of fado. Like Proust, fado music tries to recover lost times, ephemeral feelings, time moved on, laments of what could have been if only.... In Heaven's Mirror, Mellars travels a geographical odys- sey and an inner quest, mixing love with desire, memory with longing. Mim- icking the Portuguese voyages of old, the filmmaker also sails an inner sea to learn from those who have lived and sung life in fado--for somewhere, some- how, sometime, we all must travel fado's terrain. Heaven’s Mirror features top fado performers Ana Moura, Camané, Mafalda Arnauth, Carlos do Carmo, Helder Moutinho, Joana Amendoeira, Katia Guerreiro, Carlos Gonçalves, Celeste Rodrigues, Jorge Fernando and Tereza Tarouca. P.O. Box 29322 San Francisco CA 94129, USA • telephone: (1) 707.321.1600 • [email protected] www.heavensmirrormovie.com • www.abuelaluna.com • www.facebook.com/HeavensMirrorMovie Long Synopsis (369 words) Heaven’s Mirror: A Portuguese Voyage is director Joshua Dylan Mellars' love song to fado music and a Chatwinesque travelogue, odyssey, and musical ad- venture that becomes the filmmaker's encounter with destiny and desire, memory and regret. Entering deep into the spell of this hauntingly beautiful Portuguese folk mu- sic and its salient emotion--longing (saudade), Heaven’s Mirror travels around the world to tell the story of this two centuries old music whose influ- ences were first carried by sailors to the port of Lisbon from Africa, Brazil and the Arab world. Heaven’s Mirror sets sail from the Portuguese immi- grant enclaves of California to New England's former whaling ports, then di- rects its course to Lisbon’s candle-lit fado houses and Indian Goa's steamy, pastel bungalows. Lisbon shimmers exotic and mysterious above the Tagus; the fado music of the past becomes palpable: the ghost of legendary fadista Amália Rodrigues seems to shelter in the doorways of the narrow and cob- bled streets. In Heaven’s Mirror, the best new fadistas talk about Amália, life, longing, love, and sing sultry, evocative Portuguese fado to illustrate their point: Ana Moura, filmed singing in an intimate cabaret setting, has sung “No Expecta- tions” on the big stage with the Rolling Stones; Mafalda Arnauth, filmed at Sintra’s windswept Moorish castle and on the rugged coastline which inspires her own fados, has also recorded Astor Piazzolla’s Argentine tangos and Tom Abuela Luna Pictures! Heaven’s Mirror: A Portuguese Voyage 3 Jobim’s Brazilian bossa novas; Camané, who can sing with bossa nova and jazz inflections, shows the old fado neighborhood of the Alfama and then guides the filmmaker to a bohemian fado house and an impromptu fado ses- sion. As the filmmaker travels, Portuguese saudade expands through the medium of fado, a paper flower unfolding in water; the past becomes an enigma, the present an illusion, the future a dream. Heaven’s Mirror follows the course of the Portuguese voyages of old, but the filmmaker also sails an inner sea to learn from those who have lived and sung life in fado--for somewhere, some- how, sometime, we all must travel fado’s terrain. Heaven’s Mirror features top fado performers Ana Moura, Camané, Mafalda Arnauth, Carlos do Carmo, Helder Moutinho, Joana Amendoeira, Katia Guer- reiro, Carlos Gonçalves, Celeste Rodrigues, Jorge Fernando and Tereza Ta- rouca. Abuela Luna Pictures! Heaven’s Mirror: A Portuguese Voyage 4 ABUELA LUNA PICTURES Presents HEAVEN’S MIRROR A PORTUGUESE VOYAGE Director Bio Joshua Dylan Mellars is the director and producer of Heaven’s Mirror: A Portu- guese Voyage (2011), Play Like a Lion: The Legacy of Maestro Ali Akbar Khan (2011), and Tango Illusions (2005)--a film trilogy which travels the emotional ter- rain of the world’s richest traditional music.! After graduating from Brown Univer- sity, Joshua worked!as a news correspondent in South America: filing stories for Bridge News, UPI, the BBC and NPR. He reported the coming to power of Hugo Chavez in Caracas, the turmoil of political and economic meltdown in Buenos Ai- res (his film Tango Illusions is a mix of Argentine tango and politics), the accession to the Brazilian presidency of!left leaning Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and the cele- bration of the World Cup championship in Rio de Janeiro. Concurrent to his politi- cal and oil reporting, Mellars!reported classical music events in South America to Andante. After returning to the United States, Mr. Mellars began work on his film trilogy. Tango Illusions screened at film festivals in the US and Canada, winning the “Best Cine Latino” prize at the Napa-Sonoma Wine Country Film Festival and the “People’s Choice” award at the Bay Street Film Festival in Canada. Play Like a Lion is an Official Selection at California’s prestigious Mill Valley Film Festival, Berlin’s Globians Doc Fest, and the Bay Street Film Festival. Heaven's Mirror will make its World Premiere at California’s Santa Rosa International Film Festival. P.O. Box 29322 San Francisco CA 94129, USA • telephone: (1) 707.321.1600 • [email protected] www.heavensmirrormovie.com • www.abuelaluna.com • www.facebook.com/HeavensMirrorMovie ABUELA LUNA PICTURES Presents HEAVEN’S MIRROR A PORTUGUESE VOYAGE DIRECTED BY JOSHUA DYLAN MELLARS Director’s Statement In 1997, while studying in Madrid, long before any thought of making Heaven’s Mirror, my first love affair came to an end. Feeling a bit down and with a week free, I bought a ticket for an early morning train bound for Portugal. When I arrived in Lisbon, the late afternoon sun lit up the red-tiled rooftops, washing hung from the balconies and colorful boats bobbed on the Tagus. The beauty of the city was such that, arriving there, I felt I had gone through a hidden door, discovered my own personal Xanadu. That evening, as the sun plunged into the Atlantic, I descended a flight of stairs from my hotel, hungry for a good meal, thirsty for a glass of vinho verde. On an Alfama street, I found a half submerged, candle lit restaurant, and sat down alone at a table by the win- dow. Later, as I finished my fish soup, pulling on my second glass of wine, two musicians appeared carrying their own chairs and guitars accompanied by a woman dressed in green satin, a black shawl across her shoulders, a large red ring on her finger. P.O. Box 29322 San Francisco CA 94129, USA • telephone: (1) 707.321.1600 • [email protected] www.heavensmirrormovie.com • www.abuelaluna.com • www.facebook.com/HeavensMirrorMovie As the musicians began to play, the singer to sing, I was mesmerized by the mood and the sound. I could make out from the style of the delivery, and the minor key of the song that it was a woman’s lament for a long lost love. Soon the music, the approach of the eve- ning, the vinho verde, the musicians, the singer, the shawl, and my love-affair-just-ended combined to work their magic. But what was is it that propelled me into fado’s orbit? Was it fado’s feeling of lost things. Of time having moved on. Its lamentation of what could have been if only.... Or was it just “that sound.” I left Portugal with a feeling, and that feeling was cathartic. Fado, like the blues, like flamenco is a music that says, “This has hap- pened to me and I’m telling you about it and I’m fighting it to a certain extent. But at least I’m addressing it and making it verbal and public. And you are going to have to deal with these feelings too.” I knew then that I wanted to capture that elusive fado feeling, to show its mystery and to take my audience on a journey into the emotional life of Portugal and its music. For sooner or later we all travel fado’s terrain. Abuela Luna Pictures! Heaven’s Mirror: A Portuguese Voyage 7 ABUELA LUNA PICTURES Presents HEAVEN’S MIRROR A PORTUGUESE VOYAGE DIRECTED BY JOSHUA DYLAN MELLARS CAST BIOS Ana Moura Fadista Ana Moura was born in 1979 in San- tarem, Portugal which is located on the Tagus River just north of Lisbon in the center of Por- tugal’s heartland.