"This a Voodoo witch doctor." "I ran into him in Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro." "We were down there making a documentary film." "Partly for the governement but mostly..." "Mostly for a...a Hollywood studio." "This what at the time of the 'Good Neighbor' policy... and it was my task to make a large technical documentary on the subject of the Carnival." "And so we took up the whole question of Samba and the..." "Samba Orchestra." "And, when I'd nearly finished the film it occurred to me that the origins of Samba... lay in..." "Voodoo ceremonies, particularly in Shango which are practiced... up in the favelas, those strange, native settlements on the ...mountains, which are right in the midst of Rio." "And so, I arranged with a good deal of difficulty to film a Voodoo ceremony." "And, we had protracted conversations with the... head of the group, this doctor whose sketch I've shown you." "And...an advanced payment was arranged for." "He came to my office.... in Rio to discuss it." "And, it was my unhappy lot to have to tell him that the filming was off because I had just received word from Hollywood that the president of the film studio had been removed." "That sort of thing happens not only in South American governments, but also in film studios." "Had been rather abruptly removed, a new president was in his place." "And, the entire project was off." "There was no more money to spend on Voodoo ceremonies." "And the witch doctor assured me that this... was deeply offensive and..." "That he and his group took it very badly." "And, I said I was most sorry about it myself and..." "I did want to finish the film and I did hope he understood." "But, he said "we have spent money"." ""We have bought entirely new costumes."" "And I said: "Well, I'm awfully sorry..."" ""but there just isn't any money from Hollywood to pay you."" ""I don't know how I can explain to this new administration that..."" ""The Voodoo ceremony must continue." "Certainly not in the time..."" ""Uh...already agreed on."" "Then I was called away to the telephone again." "And..." "left the doctor, in my office." "Had a long conversation on the phone, begging and pleading to be allowed to finish this picture." "Which we rather liked." "The material was very interesting and I thought it would be a good thing to..." "To finish, since so much effort had gone into it and I was pleading my cause for some time." "Praying that we would be able to." "And, I came back to the office and found that the doctor had gone..." "Having been told that the deal was completely off... and that on my desk... in a script of the film... was a long, steel needle." "It had been driven entirely through the script." "And to the needle was attached a length of red... wool." "This was the mark of the Voodoo." "The end of that story is that... it was the end of the film." "We were never allowed to finish it." "Hollywood, 1941." "Orson Welles astounds America with Citizen Kane." "The most audacious and controversial debut in motion picture history." "Inventing modern cinema was a tough act to follow." "So, Welles' next production was something entirely different." "A collection of true stories to be called, appropriately: 'It's All True'." "The first story, 'My Friend Bonito', began shooting in Mexico under the direction Welles associate, Norman Foster." "As producer of 'It's All True'" "Welles closely supervised the filming of 'Bonito'." "One sequence in which he lavished special attention being shown here for the first time, was 'The Blessing of the Young Animals in the Village Church'." "Back in Hollywood, Welles was rehearsing 'The Magnificent Ambersons'." "At the same time he was preparing to produce an act in the thriller 'Journey Into Fear', but his plans were about to change, dramatically." "After Pearl Harbor, when America entered the war," "RKO and Nelson Rockefeller, who was a major stockholder in RKO, joined in trying to persuade Welles that his picture should be shot in South America as a gesture of hemispheric solidarity." "Washington feared Nazi influence in South America, which was critical to the Allied cause." "And Brazil's dictator, Getúlio Vargas, had Nazi sympathizers in his governement." "So, the state department appointed Welles, Special Ambassador to Brazil." "We, the people of these United Nations of America, now stand together." "We ought to know each other better than we do." "It's my job to help with the introductions." "It was never meant to be a commercial venture." "It was more of a cultural interchange." "I was sent to South America by Nelson Rockefeller.... and Jock Whitney." "I was told that it was my patriotic duty... to go and spend a million dollars shooting... the Carnival in Rio." "He had to get to Rio in time to film The Carnival." "So, he was forced to shoot 'The Magnificent Ambersons' and 'Journey Into Fear' at the same time on adjoining soundstages." "He didn't even have time to change his costume." "Filming of 'Bonito', the first part of the new Latin American version of 'It's All True', was temporarily suspended." "Never to be resumed." "He finished shooting both films in time to leave for Rio, but it was a real cliffhanger." "The night before I left for South America having run around the top of the... building in the rain for 'Journey Into Fear'." "I went to the projection room at about two in the morning, no, four in the morning, and then gone on the plane and off to Rio." "At the end of... civilization as we know it!" "When reporters asked Welles what his Brazilian film would be about, he said:" ""Ask me again...in six months."" "The lights failed to arrive, so he filmed 'Carnival' with anti-aircraft lights borrowed from the Brazilian army." "Four days and four nights" "I photographed." "It never stops." "Welles said:" ""Filming 'Carnival' was like trying to capture a hurricane."" "They sleep for a couple hours, get up, they get into the frenzy again." "I tell ya, they're crazy!" "People get tired, they fall asleep, they're going to lean against a house, that's it." "I went... groaning with horror at the thought of making a Carnival film." "As it turned out I became fascinated with Samba." "What was interesting were the Samba clubs, and all of that which would have organized and told to people, explained what it was, socially and all the rest of that." "In the frenzy of Carnival," "Welles had discovered what the true subject of his film would be." "He would tell the story of Samba, and where it came from, with the help of Brazil's greatest musical artists." "There's another side of Rio." "Can you hear it?" "Not a sceney side, not at all." "Even if smart isn't the word for it." "No, indeed, if Rio's backyard isn't exactly Gala it's even gayer than Rio's front lawn." "There isn't a Jazz Smith up north who could ever express it." "It's set to music, but the music's all its own." "Rich..." "Deep..." "Brazilian." "It comes rolling down to Rio from the hills." "It throbs in the streets." "Everybody dances to it." "It's called..." "Samba." "Dig that rhythm you cats!" "For decades, the Samba schools had come down from the hills for Carnivals and gathered at Square #11." "The fabled Praça Onze." "Vargas had demolished Praça Onze to build a new boulevard." "So, Welles rebuilt in a studio for his technicolor cameras to commemorate the Carnival of the streets now passing into history." "By filming the hit song 'Farewell Praça Onze'" "Welles joined the people in their protest." "At the same time he began filming the story of another protest which would be the third story of 'It's All True'." "A cry of outrage from the poorest of the poor that electrified all of Brazil." "He first read about it in Time Magazine." "Four poor fishermen risked their lives sailing a tiny raft called a jungada to Rio to demand that Brazil's president give their people, the Jangaderos, the same social benefits enjoyed by other Brazilian workers." "They sailed from Fortaleza in the northeast, an incredible 1650 miles, without the aid of a compass, stopping along the way to find food and water." "Visiting other fishing communities and rallying support for their cause," "Time called it a 'Homeric Voyage' that wrought a political miracle." "Jacaré was the leader of the expedition but Jerônimo, a man who could neither read nor write, was the pilot." "Vargas promised the Jangaderos the social benefits they sought." "Their jungada was carried in triumph through the streets." "Three months had passed since their voyage when Welles came to Brazil and the Jangaderos were still national heroes." "With 'Bonito' and 'Carnival' the Jangederos story would complete his Latin America trilogy... but Jacaré's political activities had made him a cause of concern for the Vargas governement." "I think that the Vargas governement began to recognize the fact that this was not going to be a film that would bring tourists to Brazil." "I remember the night we tried to photograph one of the tenement districts in the favelas" "That's the hills above Rio..." "Thugs!" "Thugs surrounded us and after a siege of beer bottles, empties of course, stones, bricks, and I hate to think what else..." "We retreated to a more photogenic district." "And, it occurs to me that since man and the world have to live with one another and get along somehow..." "They might learn a great deal about tolerance and quiet decency from the Brazilians." "Who have the blood of all men." "RKO was now a new government and they asked to see the rushes of what I'm doing in South America." "And they see a lot of people, black people, and the reaction is:" ""He's just shooting a lot of jigaboos, jumping up and down." You know?" "They didn't even hear the Samba music because it hadn't been synched up." "'The Magnificent Ambersons' was also in trouble with the hostile new regime at RKO." "They had promised me when I went to South America that they would send a moviola and cutters to me." "And that I would finish the cutting of 'Ambersons' there." "Instead, Welles was forced to edit 'The Magnificent Ambersons' by lengthy cables to the States." "I was trapped down there." "I couldn't leave to protect it." "And all I kept getting were these terrible signals about this awful movie I had made." "The audience at a preview screening reacted badly to Welles' dark story, and the studio panicked." "Eventually, they cut 45 minutes out of 'The Magnificent Ambersons' and gave it a happy ending." "It might have been Welles' greatest film." "They destroyed 'Ambersons'." "And...the picture itself destroyed me." "I was..." "I didn't get a job as a director for years afterwards." "Welles was already filming the Jangaderos story in Rio's Guanabara Bay." "Well, I remember it was a sunny, beautiful day... and it was a nightmare." "The harbor was full of sailboats, putting up sail, getting ready to reenact the Jangaderos... triumphant entry into Rio Harbor." "And then, the impossible happened." "A wave of..." "A big, double wave over-turned the raft." "And nobody was very alarmed... and four of them... went overboard." "And three of them surfaced... and one did not." "And it was Jacaré." "Who was their leader." "We were devastated." "And Orson... was so undone... that... that it..." "He must have made the decision at that point that he would make this film no matter what." "And..." "I'm sure... was haunted... by the feeling... that the picture did have a curse on it." "A vice president was sent from Hollywood to shut the picture down, and send everybody home." "So, Orson was able to persuade him... that it would be a...actually a very bad move for the studio." "Because after all their folk hero, Jacaré, had given his life for the making of the film." "For men on a raft got a reprieve." "When we were recalled from Brazil there was till some money left for shooting." "Not much." "I took that and went up with Dick Wilson and a cameraman... and we made the 'Jangadero' documentary." "When Welles got off the plane reporters informed him that his production company, The Mercury, had been thrown off the RKO lot." "In spite of everything, he was determined to finish his film." "We were cut off with $10,000." "We were given only 45,000 feet of black and white, 35mm negative." "A rented, silent, Mitchell camera." "A cameraman who was living in Rio because war had broken out and he couldn't get back to Hungary." "And we were there two months with the Jangaderos, following their voyage and all that." "It was an extraordinary experience." "Mr Welles was busy all the time, he went around looking at... the landscape, of course, and the terrain." "He talked to the fishermen." "Knew almost everybody in the little fishing area where we were." "the families, the children." "We were reenacting 'The Odyssey' and I knew what a rare experience it was to make a true and tragic film." "And, it was tragic because they did not get... what they...went for." "Welles also wanted to show the feudal system under which the Jangaderos lived." "It kept them poor, no matter how hard they worked." "To...film it with the... blaze of publicity that followed him wherever he went in Brazil... was in one way to call the presedential bluff." "It was to...remind him of his promises." "To dramatize the Jangadero's decision to sail to Rio" "Welles devised a little love story." "She was 13 years old, and she had never seen a movie in her life." "Unable to record sound, deprived of moving cameras and the luxury of a large crew," "Welles invented a new style to fit this new kind of filmmaking." "To get extreme low angles, he would put people on platforms, and bury his cameraman deep in the sand." "He drew moving performances from people who had never seen a camera before." "Orson was happy then, because he was creating." "He was on his own, doing a story he loved, about people he loved." "Welles and his team finished shooting 'Four Men on a Raft' just in time to catch a wartime flight to the States." "Once back, he learned that RKO was not going to let him finish 'It's All True'." "So, I was fired from RKO." "And... they... made a great publicity of point of the fact that I had gone to South America without a script and thrown all this money away." "That..." "I never recovered from that...from that attack." "Welles refused to give up." "He hired himself out for the first time as a movie star to option the footage from RKO." "For four years he desperately sought financing to finish it." "I tried everything." "I was near it, near it, near it, and I wasted many years of my life." "If I turned my back like they did on it, I would have been much better but" "I kept trying to be loyal to it and it began a pattern of trying to finish pictures which has plagued me ever since." "After many years, 'It's All True' simply disappeared." "Becoming one of history's legendary lost films." "Then, in 1985..." "What I discovered were 300 cans...  of what was called:" "'Bonito' and 'Brazil'." "So, I went and had one of the cans printed up and found out that yes, there was some things of 'Bonito, and there was some things of 'Carnival'." "But, the most spectacular part of it all was the last three shots of this daily which were something about fishermen and they were spectacular and they were very beautiful and very obviously, I knew who directed it." "It was Orson Welles." "Ladies and gentlemen, here comes the Samba now." "Of course, we all live with our past but I try not to... encourage it to misbehave." "Ladies and Gentlemen, Carmen Miranda, no other." "You know, ladies and gentlemen, there's a lot more to Samba... as I've just found out, there's a lot more to Samba than meets the virgin ear." "Now, I've got a full compliment of really top Samba players here at the microphone and they're going to help us now to investigate the anatomy of Samba." "Now, I'm no authority but... plenty of authorities are standing by!" "What you hear now for instance, sounds like a drum, doesn't it?" "Well, it looks like a drum!" "Must have some special name, though." "Probably..." "Unpronounceable." "Surdo!" "Surdo?" "Yes." "Well, that's not so hard, Carmen." "It looks African?" "It is!" "This is the first tambourine." "Tambourine?" "Yes." "Correct!" "Well..." "Ladies and gentlemen, the...tambourine is not a...tambourine!" "As you can hear it has no little, jangling metal discs." "It's square for one thing, rather small..." "It's very crude looking." "It's just a rough frame with some kind of (?" ")." "Cat skin!" "Cat skin..." "There's some skin stretched over one side." "Yes, cat skin." "Well, the next is the Pandeiro!" "Pandeiro?" "Pandiero!" "Yes, something wrong, Senor Welles?" "Oh, no..." "Pandiero." "I was just confused for a minute." "It's all right now." "Ladies and gentlemen, this instrument oddly enough, is exactly like our tambourine!" "Well, that's the way things are." "Yes, you're quite right!" "I..." "Now we shall go on, yes?" "This is the reco-reco." "Reco-reco?" "Yes." "Why?" "Why?" "Why is it called the reco-reco?" "Well, because of the sound it's making." "Cause it's the sound it makes." "That's a..." "Yeah." "A very good reason!" "All right, now you hear the Ganzá!" "Ganzá." "The...the ganzá is a longish, metal cylinder, filled with pebbles or something." "The gentleman here handles it with all the flare of a bartender shaking a cocktail shaker." "Now...we hear the cuica!" "What's that, Carmen?" "Cuica!" "The cuica." "Cuica." "Well, this weird sound comes from a drum!" "However, as you notice, it isn't beating like a drum." "One end is open." "And, attached to the inside of the hide is a rod." "When you yank it back and forth the... that's what you hear." "There you have it!" "The rhythm of the Samba." "To us neighbors, it doesn't sound easy and it doesn't look easy." "Brazilian babies can beat out Samba rhythm before they can talk!" "And they can... dance to the Samba rhythm before they can walk!" "At least that's what I was told...and I believe it."