Seu Jorge: The Model

Credited with helping to reinvent samba for a modern audience, 40-year-old Seu Jorge has always taken a dualistic approach to his art: During the early 2000s, he not only debuted his breakthrough solo record, which heavily referenced Brazil’s musical heroes Gilberto Gil and Jorge Ben Jor, but also pursued an acting career—delivering a scene-stealing performance as the vigilante hero “Knockout Ned” in the Oscar-nominated City of God and earning a cult following as a nautical balladeer doing Portuguese covers of Bowie classics in Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. He draws on his aptitude for both mediums for his latest project, the companion film to his recent album Seu Jorge and Almaz. Jorge joined forces with director Kahlil Joseph to create a kind of anti-music-video to complement his LP—an album of covers featuring members of the group Nação Zumbi, leaders of the mangue beat movement. Shot in a sprawling modern residence in the Hollywood Hills, The Model is divided into two chapters; the first, “Marcello in Limbo” (shown above) features a live snippet of the band’s languorous take on Roy Ayers’ “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” and follows Jorge’s saunter through the house in one take. The second, “Oshun and the Dream” explores Jorge’s character’s struggle with his muse The Model, who continually beckons him in lucid dreams. The film takes inspiration from the Kraftwerk song of the same name, which Jorge reinterprets on the LP with psychedelic guitar and his trademark crooning baritone. To view the second chapter, “Oshun and the Dream,” and read about director Kahlil Joseph’s visual influences, click here; and to take a peek at Melodie McDaniel's exclusive behind-the-scenes photos for NOWNESS, click here.