Waiting for the Carnival

Cachoeirinha, Caetés, Caruaru,

Tacaimbó, Taquaritinga, Toritama.

These cities are in the Agreste,

a dry and poor region of Northeastern Brazil.

My father was a tax inspector in this region.

When I was a child, he'd bring me along on his trips.

It was a rural world with street markets,

corn and bean farmers, and goatherds.

Hardly any sound of traffic

nor people walking on the streets.

This is the Agreste I keep in my childhood memories.

On the road connecting Caruaru to Santa Cruz do Capibaribe,

gigantic billboards announce the arrival to the small village of Toritama.

WELCOME TO THE CAPITAL OF JEANS

My reason for coming here is quite different from my father's.

As far as I remember, Toritama had a different pace.

At 8 AM you could hardly see any activity on the streets.

The urban landscape has changed.

Jeans factories have been built in the large empty lots.

And most of the houses have become small backyard workshops

called "factions".

What time do you start to work?

5, 6 AM.

Then I work until 9 or 10 PM. I'm at home, right?

- You don't get tired? - No.

I take a shower and lie down.

Watch a bit of TV and wake up ready for another day.

Sunday to Sunday?

When there's work to be done, I like it.

The more I work, the more money I make.

This is my son-in-law.

He's your son-in-law?

He's in the family to stay.

- He's an eager beaver. - What do you mean?

He's a hard worker, he knows the ropes.

This is what we call Toritama gold.

Blue jeans, blue gold.

The factions belong to people who built their own business?

That's right.

I worked for 7 years in a factory.

Then the boss went broke all of a sudden.

We all went our separate ways.

Then I bought my first machine, others did the same.

Today, each of us has their own machine. Their own faction.

You wouldn't go back?

No. It's fine this way.

We each have our own machine.

It works out.

He's taking over the interview.

No problem. Didn't you ask him to be here?

Are we done?

We're done. You keep butting into her interview.

He says you're butting in.

I saw she was having trouble expressing herself.

Is it bad? You can cut it all.

- He just butts into everything. - It's because he's smart.

Is it good or bad?

You want us to interview you instead. You want to be the star of the film.

I don't know, you're the boss.

It's just that she was having a hard time expressing herself

about the jeans, how it all began.

She's a pioneer, she used to make these small boxes.

You should have told them all about your life.

Let me explain: I began assembling, these boxes when I was 12.

Why'd you say your boss went bankrupt?

I said that I worked in a factory for 7 years, right?

The factory went bust and we all went our separate ways

and bought their own machines and have their own businesses.

We can't just omit things, right? We have to tell the truth.

Lunchtime is the only moment of silence in Toritama.

I remember that silence well.

It lasted all day long.

I hear music coming from inside a faction.

It is a rap song saying: "I dreamed that I was rich."

I don't want to talk. I'm too "ashamed".

I can't speak just like this.

Tell me about your work.

I do a bit of everything.

Knead glue, turn pieces inside out, stitch them up with the kids.

Do you like to wear jeans?

I love it.

I like them. People look better, more elegant.

We listen mostly to funk, rap, reggae.

I'm a father. My daughter's name is Julia Beatriz.

- How old is she? - She's 6, 7 months old.

- How about you? - I'm 19.

Becoming a father at 19, 20 years old is a trend here in Toritama.

I have a family but I'm single.

I mean, the trend is having kids, not getting married.

You get the job done, right?

- I did 1200 pieces myself yesterday. - Really? Is that true?

It's true.

Each one of us makes around 1000, 1500 pieces each.

Do they get the job done?

Yeah. They might look skinny,

they might be ugly, but they're very professional.

You just gonna sit there?

If I can't find it in me to get up, I won't.

My oh my oh my...

So the work is too much for you. You just lie around. Right?

They caught me taking a nap. Darn it...

- You screwed up. - How do you like that?

Oh, boy!

I got caught in the act. Can you believe it? Snoozing.

Does this guy work or just sleep?

- No, he works hard. - Really?

He's a hard worker. People come looking to hire him.

Come looking for him to sleep or work?

To work, for sure.

Oh boy, I am telling you that my name is "work"

and my nickname is "overtime". What more do you need to say?

Here you get paid for the work you do.

The harder you push yourself, the more money you make.

You keep to your work, and don't waste time chatting.

It's all about production here.

Listen, you've got a right to try out all the jobs in the world,

but you gotta pick one.

Listen up, there's a lot of different professions,

which you probably know better than I do,

because I'm young, in my prime, starting life now...

And when you're 32 all you can do is pray to make it to 80.

I mean, it's up to God,

you could die at any moment.

But of all the jobs in the world, you gotta pick one.

What's the best job in the world?

Not working for anybody.

Being your own boss.

Making an honest living, with dignity, answering to no one,

And it's really nice to be able to lie back and sleep, like I did...

Sleeping so peacefully... I'd have slept some more.

We're our own bosses here.

We set our own hours.

If we had a boss, we'd have fixed working hours.

We come in at 7 AM, stay until 8:30 AM,

go home for breakfast,

then come back and stay until 11:30 AM.

Then we go home, have lunch and come back at 1:30 PM.

When it's 6:30...

- 6:30 when? - In the evening.

We go back home at 6:30 PM, for dinner,

and then around 7:30 PM, we come back and stay until 10:00 PM.

And when you get back home?

Take a bath and fall exhausted into bed.

It's tiring, but we earn more, right?

We earn more.

This is the house that served as lodging for civil servants

who were passing through the region.

The large room contained only beds and mattresses.

I try to recognize the place,

but nothing seems the same.

The lodge was made into a backyard factory,

like so many other houses here.

Here you work with production, right?

Yes.

Explain how that works. What do you do here?

Well, if you make 100 pocket openings, at 0.025 USD apiece,

you earn 2.50 USD.

If you make 1000 pocket openings in one day, you earn 25 USD.

If you make a fly, the part that covers the zipper, it's 0.05 USD.

You make 1000 a day, you earn 50 USD.

Depends on your production.

No matter if it's sewing or anything else.

I think that today it's much better to work for yourself.

Our life here isn't bad, not at all.

If anyone thinks it is, they're wrong.

Not everybody has the privilege of being healthy, having work,

making a living, having food on the table when the weekend comes.

There's a lot of people, I see on TV, in Africa, dying of hunger,

countries at war,

and thank God we don't have any of that in Toritama.

So is this a bad life? No way. It's dying that's bad.

Do you want more juice?

Hey, Antonio. Go play in another sector.

Don't go there.

Go play in another sector.

Come on, get going.

Go play inside with Maisa, go on.

Go on home, Arthur, will you?

If you don't, I won't give you the phone.

Come on! I'm giving you the phone, so get out.

Toritama was like a mother to me.

Anybody who badmouths Toritama

is not blessed by God.

If you come here with an empty stomach, you leave fat, like me.

It's a good place to work.

We have lots of people from other cities.

It's like São Paulo now,

everybody used to go to São Paulo to work, right?

But it wasn't easy there. You had to have education.

But not here. For example, even if you're a nobody when you get here,

you might not know anything, but you'll find work in Toritama for sure.

Get out of the way, Arthur.

No... I go when I can, when I can't I just stay here.

Do you need to go out of town to have fun?

You have to go out of town if you want to eat out,

if you want to swim in a pool...

There's nothing here in Toritama. It's all about work.

I started to cut sugarcane at the age of 13.

I made 3, 4 USD a week.

Then I adapted little by little...