Fabrik Funk: The Fabrication of the Everyday Reality of a Dream

Abstract

Fabrik Funk (2015), an ethno-fiction co-directed by the authors of this article, was shot in Cidade Tiradentes, a popular neighbourhood on the outskirts of São Paulo, considered by some of its residents to be the ultimate “funk factory.” The film tells the story of Negaly, a young woman who dreams of becoming a famous funk music MC. This article approaches ethno-fiction as the fabrication of the everyday. Producing an ethno-fiction encouraged the authors to reflect on the tensions arising between contrasting concepts such as real and imagined, documentary and fiction, familiar and exotic, and self and other. In Fabrik Funk, music videos act as bridges, connecting what is real to what is imagined or desired by Negaly, the main participant. Through an analysis of three musical sequences borrowed from the film, the article reflects on how music videos shift the cinematic narrative away from events happening in the real world, and towards a state associated with dream, imagination, desire, and hope.