Portuguese rock wasn’t born with Rui Veloso, nor with José Cid, nor even with the Conchas, generally considered to be the first rock group in Portugal in the 1960s.
The first disc in the genre, which is now largely forgotten, came from a woman named Zurita de Oliveira. From a family of artists, sister of comedian Camilo de Oliveira, Zurita had already recorded several light music albums throughout the 1950s.
She changed course, however, in 1961 and moved towards the new sounds emanating from the USA to record what is now recognised as the firstrock ‘n’ roll song in the history of Portuguese music: it was called O Bonitão do Rock (The good-looking guy of rock).
As well as singing, Zurita also played the electric guitar, something very rare for a woman at the time. She would later form her own band, with which she toured various venues in Portugal. Zurita would later dedicate herself to writing fados for her great friend and accomplice Ada de Castro. She died in 2015, aged 84.
Francisca Marvão heard about this historic but little-known figure while researching her previous film, Ela é uma Música (She’s a Song). Fascinated, she wanted to find out more and soon the idea of making a documentary was born: Who’s afraid of Zurita de Oliveira?
“It’s said that she was the pioneer of rock music in Portugal, but she was more than that. She was a musician, a lyricist, a playwright, an interpreter… above all, she was a woman who in the 1960s dared to perform great electric guitar solos on a big stage for a big audience,” says Marvão.
As well as finance, for which Marvão had to resort to crowdfunding, the documentary faced another major challenge: the fact that very few images of Zurita de Oliveira have survived to this day.
“Time passes, not many things have been kept of her, from what I’ve been told. She used to record rehearsals, for example, and that has been lost. Several people who knew her and perhaps had something have died in the meantime and things have been lost,” adds Marvão.
For example, the only known filmed record of Zurita de Oliveira, in which she sings the humorous Brazilian song “O Namoro da Vovó”, is the property of the RTP archives, which refused to provide the footage free of charge for the documentary. All this forced the filmmaker to rack her brains, and sometimes great ideas are born of necessity.
So Marvão decided to perform skits with actors, including an interview with Zurita, based on various statements made by the artist to magazines of the time. She also invited several all-female singers and bands to sing and reinterpret various songs written or originally sung by Zurita de Oliveira, including some that had never been performed before.
To interpret O Bonitão do Rock, a band was created from scratch, called Zuritas Elétricas: “It’s a way of giving a stage to the women who make music today and bringing Zurita back to the present,” adds the director.
The film also features a series of testimonies from people who lived closely with Zurita de Oliveira, such as Ada de Castro, the band members or even Camilo de Oliveira’s widow, Paula Marcelo. She proved to be an essential part of the documentary and left Marvão with a precious souvenir – a guitar used by Zurita.
Rapper Dama Bete, one of the artists invited to take part, was thrilled to see the film for the first time: “We were able to bring to life lyrics that had been forgotten, that had never been interpreted by Zurita, that had never been recorded. Listening to what each artist did in giving voice to these songs, I was able to feel more and identify more with Zurita’s cause and what she wanted to say,” she says.
As well as Dama Bete, the film features appearances by A Garota Não, Frik.são, Trypas Corassão or Vitória & The Kalashnicoles, a whole recent crop of Portuguese alternative music made by women.
“Who’s Afraid of Zurita de Oliveira?” premiered at this year’s IndieLisboa international film festival