Watch the short documentary film Political Signatures here. The film was screened as film part of a keynote presentation: ‘Micro-movements of activism in the Jogo de Capoeira’ by Beatrice Allegranti at an international (Australia, Brazil, U.S.A., U.K.) seminar hosted by Project Bantu and the New South Wales Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors – Australia (STARTTS).

Political Signatures is an innovative neurofeminist collaboration combining the Afro-Brazilian art of capoeira, dance movement psychotherapy and neuroscience.

As a development of the What Moves Us Project Beatrice Allegranti is collaborating with neuroscientist Dr Jonathan Silas (Middlesex University), Capoeira Mestre Ponciano Almeida (Mojuba Capoeira) and Dance Movement Psychotherapist Gerry Harrison (NHS) to work with a distinguished group of  international capoeira masters from the UK and Brasil. Amongst them is Mestre Brasilia – a historical pioneer in the development of capoeria in Brasil.

The project also includes 36 UK and Brazilian participants all of whom practice the art of capoeira.

The first publication emerging from the research is:  Allegranti, B. and Silas, J. (2021) ‘Intra-active Signatures in Capoeira: More-than-Human Pathways Towards Activism’. Emotion, Space, Society. February (38). Available here.

Directed & Produced by: Beatrice Allegranti

Music: Jill Halstead, Ponciano Almeida

Director of Photography: Alice Hiscoke

Film Editor: Alexander Lopera

Production Photography: Alice Underwood

Interviews: Beatrice Allegranti & Jonathan Silas

Transcription: Abbie Carter

Graphics and Design: NCreative

Funding

University of Roehampton; Department of Psychology; University of Middlesex; Santander Travel Grant.

Partnerships

Mojuba Capoeira London; Mestre Poncianinho (UK); Mestre Brasilia (Brazil); Mestre Jose Antonio and Barracão Capoeira Academy (Brazil); Mestre Favinio Brasil; Middlesex University; Tedx Dorking; Public Health.

Useful Links

Tedx Talk – with Mestre Poncianinho and Beatrice Allegranti

Dr Jonathan Silas: Cognitive neuroscientist and Beatrice’s collaborator on the Embodied Signatures project

Jill Halstead – the film’s composer and professor of interdisciplinary music at the University of Bergen

NCreative – the film’s motion graphics editor

Mojuba Capoeira London – the capoeira school where Beatrice and many of the research participants practice with Mestre Poncianinho

Alexander Lopera – the film’s editor