Art Ratton

a sweet and sour animation film for Peta

I was the cinematographer for most of this really well succeed documentary and also a producer of a few of the segments. This doc premiered at the MoMa Museum in New York and was screened in more than fifty film festivals around the world(among them SXSW, HOT DOCS, IN edit, Chicago International Film festival and Rio Cine Festival). It tells the story of Brazilian Music out side Brazil, most in the USA, covering a story that begins in the 40′s till today. We used multiple formats as Mini DV, HD, super 8 and 16mm to accomplish a very unique and eclectic look . It shows my skills as a stage/music performance cameraman, my sit down interview style and creative approach and my  cinematography documentary style. We also shot reenactments, so it also showcase my narrative style. I am really interested in getting  involved in different and ambitious documentary projects like this one.Let me know about  your project.I probably can bring a lot of visual input to it and help you to fine tuning your narrative.

When Carmen Miranda first set foot in New York City for her Broadway debut in 1939, Americans experienced love-at-first-sight with Brazilian culture. The profound fascination of Americans with Samba, Bossa Nova, Brazilian-Jazz and Brazilectro has been the subject of many compilations, but now for the first time, the story is being told in detail by its main players in the documentary “Beyond Ipanema – America’s Love Affair with Brazilian Music”. Featuring interviews, new performances and classic archival footage, the film will revisit milestones such as Carmen Miranda’s Hollywood heyday, the obsession with the Girl from Ipanema, the timeless Bossa Nova recordings by Frank Sinatra, the commercial success of Sergio Mendes, Caetano Veloso’s acclaimed American performances, the rediscovery of Tropicália and Os Mutantes by college kids, the current seduction of Bebel Gilberto, and much more

So this was a project I’ve shot for Diplo’s Mad Decent directed by my friend Shanne Hannas . I ended up shooting an extra weekend mostly by myself . The idea was to spend some time in Baltimore hang out with DJ Blaqstarr and with sweet Rye Rye(then only 16).It was really hot and confused most of the time,fun and dangerous,we lost a hard drive and our car broke and after 18 hours of work some guys tried to rob us with a gun, the cops came and they thought we had drugs and so on in a sequence of weird intense events. But most of time was fun and people were adorable.Baltimore its an interesting town and has lots of energy.It looks good too, urban beauty lives in contrast with not so beautiful landscapes witch makes the beauty even more beautiful. Our crew stick with the plan and we got the footage we needed. The label didn’t help much and editing (partially by my wife Lilka Hara) was hell since there was no money and the directors and producers relationship fell apart. The result was mind blowing , almost 1 million hits in a couple of weeks and is still hot besides the bad job that was done by the label to promote it for what the video really was: a beautiful,raw and courageous portrait  of two really young and brilliant artists, both of them. Rye Rye and DJ Blaqstarr. The compression does not  look great on you tube but thats how the audience saw it and thats the way it is. I am proud of it not just because the  tour de force of the run and gun shooting result but also because the experience kind of opened my mind musically so musch that I am still getting the flashbacks to this day. We used an HVX straight out of the box.

Using 80′s vintage footage shot by a friend in 1984 I came up with a promo for converse combining awesome free style moves with a killer track by group from Brazil called Da lata .

I am teaming up with photographer Liudi Hara and director/editor Lilka Hara(my wife) and starting Shoot & Chop to produce high quality fashion film and video content . I’ve shot and directed this video for Margarita Saplala: