A Feature Documentary
An odyssey into the soul of a nation — and through it, a reckoning with his own.
What is
the Brazilian soul?
It is the capacity to hold sorrow and joy in the same body at the same time — and dance.
The Film
A 66-year-old Australian filmmaker returns to Salvador da Bahia — the city that transformed him 38 years ago — to ask a question he has carried ever since.
Brazil My Soul follows Craig Miller across 83 days — Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Salvador da Bahia, the Northeast, and the ancient town of Cachoeira — in search of the living heart of Brazilian culture. He is both filmmaker and protagonist: inside the culture, not observing it from outside.
What Craig loves about Brazilians is their joy. Their aliveness. The way they pull you into their world — the music, the dance, the community — and make you feel it too. A drum starts and people move. It's not a performance. It's just how they are.
That is the gift Brazil can bring to the world.
When audiences watch Cuba My Soul they come out wanting to dance, wanting to go to Cuba, surprised by what they felt. Brazil My Soul aims for the same thing.
The film opens with a scene already filmed in Melbourne: the Borboleta Preta choir singing Magalenha at sunset on Port Phillip Bay. The Brazilian soul already present in Australia, before the journey begins.
In Salvador, Craig returns to Pelourinho after 38 years. He finds the Oficina de Investigação Musical where he once studied percussion with master Bira Reis. Bira is gone — died in 2019 — but the school continues.
Underneath the music is a deeper current — about reality, transformation, what we inherit and what we can create. Craig went to Salvador in 1987 and something shifted. He is going back to find out what.
The film reaches its spiritual climax in Cachoeira, where the Irmandade da Boa Morte — the Sisterhood of the Good Death, founded by enslaved Black women more than 200 years ago — processes through the streets in white, carrying candles for their dead. And then at noon: the waltz, the samba de roda, the feast.
The Journey
Arrival. First breath of Brazilian air. The roda de samba at Pedra do Sal — on the stone where enslaved people once unloaded salt from Europe.
Urban, sophisticated, electric. The jazz brasileiro scene. The city where Brazilian music got complicated and modern — the counterpoint to Salvador's roots.
The long movement. Pelourinho. Olodum on Tuesday nights. Candomblé. The search for what remains of the city that changed everything 38 years ago.
Recife, Olinda, Caruaru. Forró, frevo, Maracatu. A different Brazil — the Northeast's particular relationship with hardship and joy.
The Festa da Boa Morte. The Irmandade da Boa Morte — over 200 years old, still led by elderly Black women, processing through the streets in white. The film's spiritual and emotional climax.
Support the Film
Brazil My Soul is 100% independently produced — no studio, no broadcaster, no safety net. Every dollar goes directly into the film.
We're raising funds through the Australian Cultural Fund — a government-backed platform where your donation is 100% tax deductible and goes entirely to the production. No fees. No middleman.
Operated by Creative Australia · Donations of $2 or more are tax deductible · 100% goes to the artist
Craig Miller is an Australian documentary filmmaker, percussionist and singer based in Melbourne. He lived in Salvador da Bahia in 1987–88, studying Afro-Brazilian percussion with master Bira Reis at the Oficina de Investigação Musical in Pelourinho.
His documentary Cuba My Soul followed legendary Cuban musicians and their world. It screened at seven international festivals including Melbourne, San Francisco, Washington DC and Germany, and is distributed by Rugged Entertainment (Hollywood) on Amazon Prime internationally.
Brazil My Soul is his return — to the city, the music, and the question he has been carrying for 38 years.
Production
Sensation Records Pty Ltd
Melbourne, Australia
Production commences May 2026.
Target: Cannes 2028 — Directors' Fortnight / ACID.
Opening scene filmed March 15, 2026 — Borboleta Preta Sunset Samba by the Sea, Elwood Sailing Club, Melbourne.
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From Melbourne to Salvador da Bahia and beyond. Dispatches from inside the making of Brazil My Soul.
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