Label: Kusha Deep Records
Artist: Dar.Ra
Film and Music Title: City Of Hope
ITUNES
http://t.co/RVlOm8h5
The City Of Hope: A Children’s Story documentary is the story of American Phillip Smith, Hope Unlimited International. Philip has helped to make amazing things happen for the street kids of Brazil. Phillip’s parents founded Hope Unlimited while doing missionary work in Ethiopia. The family returned to the states in the 1970’s. In the late 1980’s the family sponsored a young Brazilian boy Marcos.
Marcos told the family about the killings of street kids by police in Rio and Sao Paulo. In the late 1980’s ABC’s 20/20 aired a story about the death squads in Rio and Sao Paulo. Seeing the injustice and harsh reality that a birth into a poor family brings, they made a decision to do something about it, one that could not be questioned.
Phillip and his dad Jack used the last of their air mileage and flew down to Brazil. On the flight a young man heard them talking. He talked to Phillip and told him that his father owned a defunct orphanage. in Campinas. Phillip and Jack met the wealthy businessman in Campinas. At the meeting he donated the defunct orphanage on 40 acres. Jack went home leaving Phillip there and it was here that Hope Unlimited Brazil was born.
The team have had remarkable results in setting up a place of sanctuary for the kids with some of them going on to university, which is an amazing breakthrough when you consider they were never taught anything other than the skills to survive.
With all revealing human tales in documentaries of this, you see the extreme reality of what these children have to deal with on a daily basis, with all the usual issues of guns, drugs and manipulation on a grade scale.
The film is being made by a team from New York, Capriole Productions Inc, headed by Kimberly Switzgable and John Scheifele, who have held the vision to make this movie for some time and now it’s coming closer to being made. Capriole Productions continues to seek funding for “City of Hope: A Children’s Story”.
It was quite by chance that John found a music composer to score the music. Reading a bio on Linked In (an online network service), which belonged to UK writer and producer Dar.Ra, he felt the need to make contact.
After a message was sent, a conversation on Skype, it led to a brief discussion sent and Dar.Ra set to writing the title track ‘City Of Hope’ and a second track ‘Moment Of Glory’.
The title track reflects the HOPE that one day things will get better, while praying for salvation from the Arms Of The Redeemer, while ‘Moment Of Glory’ is based on two dancers who use the street music as their way of escaping from reality, “When I dance I’m immune to the world, because I feel, I’m free at last” is lyric which sums the track up perfectly.
Instead of just going to a computer and putting some beats down and making a samba backing track, Dar.Ra opted for his way of writing, and penned the tracks on his guitar, wrote the lyrics and played it live for the team in NYC via Skype.
The result was they loved it and asked him to record the tracks for the film.
Dar.Ra employed the skills of Guy Denning who engineered and played bass in his amazing studio in the Kent region of the UK, called Granary Studios where the pair set about getting the tracks down.
The tracks all went down live in a take with the help of drummer Jim Coxenbury who made up the team; the sound that you hear on the recording is what they played. No tricks or gimmicks simply the real organic recording process.
The masters went to NYC and the feedback was a 100% thumbs up, so much so that they want Dar.Ra to come out to the US and tour the soundtrack with the film when it comes out later this year.
They are planning to contact ABC, NBC and CBS to introduce Dar.Ra to the US audience later this year. The greatest thing is that proceeds from the single release will be going towards the City Of Hope Project directly to Brazil’s most successful NGO, HOPE UNLIMITED INTERNATIONAL and all over Brazil, which will see more people getting the chance to get out of poverty. This transatlantic connection has combined to make a project that will really make a difference to those lives that lift to take them out of the danger zone.
The City Of Hope EP is available from iTtunes and www.kushadeep.co.uk
For further information
Email kushadeep@yahoo.co.uk
For music samples
www.soundcloud.com/kushadeep
The City Of Hope: A Children’s Story film will be released when fully completed.
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