Ivan Barros
Rock, a passion for dance and telling stories on video
Written by: Jaime Álvaro
After six years working in television, Ivan Barros decided in 2012 to create his own video production company, to meet a need that was both professional and personal: to tell, through video, inspiring stories about Mozambique and what is best about the country, Mozambicans. Before that, this Mozambican videographer had experimented with other artistic fields, first music, as guitarist in a rock band, and then dance, though only as a spectator.
The son of António Barros, one of Mozambique’s best-known broadcasters, Ivan Barros makes no secret of the fact that his father’s legacy has influenced him from the start: "My father is a journalist and columnist by profession, with more than 35 years of experience. So, ever since I was small, I have lived this thing called communication" – like father, like son, as the saying goes, which accounts for his DNA. To the stories his father has always told through a slot on Rádio Moçambique’s (RM) Antena Nacional, Ivan added images, and managed to assert his own voice in communication.
At the age of 12, Ivan was already producing a radio programme for his father. He selected the subjects and the music that went on air. The communication bug grew with exposure to radio and, above all, to books. "I listened to the radio a lot, and my father encouraged me a great deal to read. Not just me, but my brothers too. He bought me lots of encyclopaedias and various magazines. I consumed a lot of literary stories because my home was a veritable library. We had a collection of books that never seemed to end," he recalled of his childhood and the good habits he still cultivates today.
Although born under the intense heat of Tete, in 1979, Ivan spent his whole childhood in the city of Quelimane, in Zambézia province, before moving permanently to Maputo for study-related reasons. He therefore has every right to consider himself a true Quelimane native. Today, aged 43, Ivan is a graduate in communication, and worked for a number of years as a website developer and content creator.
Rock: the first passion before dance
It has been proven that music and creativity are perfect ingredients for keeping the mind focused and productive. For many years, Ivan was a computer specialist for most of his time, and a guitarist in a rock band in his spare time. "The band was made up of me on guitar, a brother of mine on vocals, a cousin on bass, and a friend on drums.” It was Kaspanatola, founded in 2002. It began by playing a punk style, then experimented with something heavier, more aggressive and intense. The name was shortened to Kaspa to match the change. Meanwhile, the group kept intact the aims for which it had been created, and having fun came above all else. Over its short career, this band of young adventurers performed on several stages, notably the Machava Stadium, Independence Square and the Mozambican-French Cultural Centre (CCFM), among others.
Despite the band’s success, Ivan always kept his feet on the ground. Reality never let him dream beyond what was possible. “Since I joined the band, I have always looked on it as a side project to my professional activity, because, being in Mozambique, playing rock was always a labour of love and a hobby. I never had the illusion that I could make it my life," he said, admitting, however, that he misses a stage and the loud, aggressive sound of his guitar, put away in 2012. In the same year that the group broke up, Ivan opened his own video production company, after a spell in television. In 10 years on the road, the band Kaspa never released an original album.
The stint in television
Ivan Barros’s career in television is notable for the leadership roles he held there. But how did an IT specialist and amateur rocker end up in television?
Ivan organised rock festivals in Quelimane, with his own funds, also as a labour of love, according to his account. The festivals aimed to promote rock, a style marginalised by the show promoters of the time. "Since nobody invited us, we had to organise our own shows, with our own means," he said. "João Ribeiro learned that I organised rock festivals with almost no budget, yet things went well. I think he saw in me some capacity for production, which even I did not know I had, and he invited me to coordinate production at STV (Soico Televisão) in 2007."
Six months later, Ivan was appointed Programme Director of that private channel. “I realised very quickly that video was what I really liked. I had to approve some content before it went on air, and I began to learn how television was made by watching my colleagues at work.” Among the entertainment programmes he led, the Fama Show, Fest Coros and Music Box Live are worth highlighting.
After a year and a half at STV, Ivan was invited to take over programming at Televisão Independente de Moçambique – TIM, a channel that was later closed down. "Everything I learned at STV, which was an excellent school, I implemented and refined at TIM over about five years, and throughout that whole journey I never thought of opening a company, because, in my view as an artist, I did not want to deal with taxes. I always intended to work for someone else," he revealed. However, disillusioned with what he had found in television, Ivan summoned his courage, faced his fears and decided to open his own video production company, with the mission of contributing to national audiovisual development.
Disillusionment came, then self-fulfilment
Ten years ago, in 2012, Ivan Barros opened a small video production company, Ampola Audiovisual, focused on corporate videos and humanised stories. "I stopped believing in the national television channels because they stopped being vehicles that told stories about Mozambique and about Mozambicans and became radio programmes with pictures. Most of the schedule was made up of debate or talk programmes. There were no longer any reports, no video content telling stories of everyday Mozambican life. So I saw that, perhaps, it was time to face my fears and open my own video production company. I was also greatly influenced by my wife, who gave me a great deal of support at that moment to stop being an employee and start taking charge of my professional destiny.”
In this role as a videographer, Ivan has travelled to every province in the country to tell success stories of non-governmental organisations, companies, projects and/or people, which has allowed him to show all Mozambicans a little of the whole country. "I feel a fulfilled professional because through my lens I tell of a poor Mozambique, but a Mozambique of people who believe that tomorrow can be better. I think that telling these stories helps show other Mozambicans that we cannot lose hope.” And the Creative Director of Ampola Audiovisual gives an example: "When we went to tell the stories of those who suffered the effects of Cyclone Idai and all the cyclones that followed in the Búzi region, in Sofala province, we saw people who did not give up, who kept on striving, fighting to give their children a better future. They are stories that move us and make us realise that in life there are things more important than certain frivolities we have in the urban environment. I think that makes us more human.”
Always enthusiastic, Ivan says he loves Mozambique, and that he does not travel merely to fulfil a work schedule, but also to get to know local realities beyond what he was commissioned to do. Some projects left their mark, such as a programme produced over six years for the Ministry of Agriculture, “Moçambique Criando Riqueza”, shown on Televisão de Moçambique (TVM). According to Ivan, it was “a spectacular project, which did not talk about politics, but about agricultural techniques". It served as a bridge for producers from various parts of the country to exchange experiences.
“Every video I produce is like a baby to me. It has something special because in each of them I try to grow a little more professionally. They all oblige me to do some research, and that makes me a better professional than I was. So, every one of them has a peculiar story.” Quality, professionalism and enthusiasm have made Ivan a professional whose services are in great demand on the national market. Among his clients are Banco de Moçambique, WWF, Higest, OXFAM and AGRA, among others.
“I feel a fulfilled professional because through my lens I tell of a poor Mozambique, but a Mozambique of people who believe that tomorrow can be better” - Ivan Barros
Video and dance: a match made in heaven
In video, Ivan Barros found, or rather invented, an opportunity to live out and immortalise one of his great, long-standing passions, contemporary dance. “I do not dance and I do not even like dancing, but I love dance. I have even been challenged to learn to dance. But, for me, it is not a question of learning. I do not like dancing, but I love watching dance", he revealed.
Ivan’s relationship with this art began with an encounter with two heavyweights of Mozambican contemporary dance, Edna Jaime and Ídio Chichava. "The dancers contacted my band to produce, live, the soundtrack to accompany a piece they were devising. Twenty years have passed, and we are still great friends to this day.”
Ivan became a specialist in producing and directing contemporary dance videos and films in Mozambique. His catalogue includes “Começa a ficar tarde”, winner of the New Authors Prize at the Kugoma Short Film Festival 2020, and “Último berro: Corpo em Estado de Emergência”, both films performed by the dancer Ídio Chichava; “Um segundo”, performed by the dancer Edna Jaime; “Motus Corporis”, with the choreographer and dancer Lulu Sala; and “In-box”, performed by Pak Ndjamena, shown at the oldest African contemporary dance festival, Jomba, in Durban, South Africa, and at a number of festivals in Europe. Most of the productions were independent, while others had material and financial support from the Mozambican-French Cultural Centre (CCFM), as part of its support for the artistic community, drastically affected by the covid-19 pandemic. "I call these collaborative projects ‘passion projects'; there is no financial return, but for me they work as an escape from the corporate world, where everything is more controlled. So, when I am producing or directing dance videos, I am free to experiment with techniques, even to be politically incorrect in terms of filming rules," he maintained. “In-box” describes the situation the world is currently living through and discusses human resilience and the hope that the world, and Mozambique, in particular Cabo Delgado, need. The film received positive reviews at the festivals where it was shown and was also requested by some university lecturers at South African and UK universities to be used in dance classes. "This shows that when we do something well, it crosses borders. When you want to do something, you cannot look at money as the primary goal. Success will be a consequence, whether in terms of money or prestige," he added.
Again with the dancer and director Pak, Ivan presented a live dance performance, via streaming, at TANZAHOi - International Dance and Dance Film Festival, in Germany. The artists’ performance was recorded in November 2021 at the Fundação Fernando Leite Couto. "When I am producing the films, I do not think much about the impact they may have, but rather about the satisfaction that the dancers and I will have with that audiovisual product. And if it is well received by the public, of course, as professionals, as artists, we are extremely flattered," he explained.
The dance videos and films mentioned can be accessed through Ivan Barros’s YouTube channel. He says that, if he were not a storyteller, he would want to be a bird or a pilot. "I love watching birds spread their wings with all the freedom a living being can aspire to," he concluded. Ivan, who is married and the father of two children, promises to carry on telling stories about the everyday lives of Mozambicans, to share them with Mozambique and with the world.
Instagram: @ivanrsbarros
