Hepa! exuberantly visualizes the driving rhythmic pulse of Afro Brazilian dance, capoeira, and percussion through animation and live-action footage. The colorful animation is hand-painted with oil paints on glass and captured on film frame by frame. The dancing is a mixture of Afro Brazilian contemporary dance and traditional Brazilian “Orisha” dances. Hepa! has won grants from the New York Foundation of the Arts and the Dance Films Association. Hepa! has screened at The Sundance Film Festival, The Margaret Mead Film Festival, on the Sundance Film Channel, PBS’s Reel New

York, The New York Children’s’ Film Festival, The Guggenheim Museum NYC, The Dance on Camera Film Festival, and The Reel Dance Film Festival among others.

Juror comments: Hand-painted images shot one frame at a time capture the vitality of Afro-Brazilian dance and percussion. The ephemeral energy and passion of the dancers are captured through color and texture, sound and movement, combining to create a third artistic force – dance, music, and painted animation.

The short film begins with silent, black and white live-action, a dancer performing in front of a mirror. Then that movement translates into color...and the sounds of Afro-Brazilian drumming are joined with painted dancers and musicians, as well as textures and patterns that convey the heightened pulse. Black and white live-action is interspersed – and what emerges is a visual experience that embodies joyful dance in a way that is beyond verbal description.

I could not keep from moving along with the beat, all while feasting my eyes on the images before me. Clearly, the filmmaker is no stranger to dance as well as film! I give this film 5 stars out of 5 stars and recommend it for ages 5 to 18, plus adults. Reviews by Ann B., KIDS FIRST!