ONE SELF PORTRAIT EVERY DAY in 2020 : 152

Sócrates lights my cigarette and says “In Brazil we are all gentlemen”, I say “I know” and light his.

It’s a bit awkward, we are all ready to go (cameras set, lights on, microphones tested) but we can’t start until the translator arrives. By now, we have been waiting for about 15 minutes drinking bottled beer and smoking cigarettes.

It’s now July 2010 but it was a few years earlier when I started thinking about making a video with Sócrates the Brazilian football legend. Initially I wanted to do a video about Socrates the philosopher, about the idea of finding truth by questioning and conversation but I couldn’t help thinking about Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira.

I remember him as the captain of the the best Brazil team ever that Italy beat 3-2 in the most memorable match I remember well. I remember him from when he played in Italy for Fiorentina. He used his fame and status as captain of Brazil to oppose the military dictatorship in Brazil; he started wearing shirts with “Democracia” written on them, this was a brave thing to do during those times a famous football player like him could not be made to disappear.

In 2004, aged 50 and very unfit, he came out of retirement to play 13 minutes as substitute for non-league team Garforth Town so I could see that he had a sense of humour and was up for things. My plan was to get in touch with him (I would write to the Brazilian football association to find out how to contact him) and maybe travel to Brazil, film me and him having a Socratic conversation about what is beauty in football and that would be that.

Unfortunately I had no response and so my next idea was to go to Ribeirão Preto and film myself looking for him, I imagined that this searching for Sócrates would end in failure but I was OK with that.

I thought maybe I could give a last go at getting in touch with him by writing my email in Portuguese. I asked Santuzza if she would help me write an email in Portuguese and I explained what my project was. She said she could help me write the email but she could do even better as she was a friend of Sócrates’ younger brother, Rai, and could put me in touch with him. Rai had also been a football player and although not in the same category as Sócrates, actually won a World Cup with Brazil in 1994.

So I manage to get in touch with Sócrates and he tells me that he would like to do it and that he has been invited by the Southbank on July 18 to talk about football as part of Festival Brazil and that we could maybe do my film on the following day.

I’m over the moon. Wow. I never thought it would happen. It’s March and I’ve got four months to get everything ready. Es Devlin said that I could use her studio. I thought that I would regret filming this with my shitty video cameras and decided to film them on Canon 5D mk2s, now it’s normal but at the time they were the first stills cameras that could film high quality video. I would need 3 cameras (one on me, one of socrates and one wide); I decided that i would rent two cameras on the day but buy one so that I could learn how to use it. This camera is an amazing stills camera too and it got me properly into digital photography.

Orlando said that he would help me with the filming and lighting, I offered to pay him but he told me that he would do it for free but I wouldn’t be able to do it if he had a paid job on the day. Andrew South said that he and a friend called Nico would take care of the sound.

Everything was going smoothly. Ah, I forgot, the only thing that Sócrates requested was that we would have to have a translator/ Santuzza put me in touch with Jane Maxwell, she’s English but married to a Brazilian and fluent. So, all cool.

I get in touch with Sócrates again, trying to work out when and where we should meet when he arrives in London. He says, “don’t worry, we will find each other, I’ll be in touch”.

It’s now July and I haven’t heard from Sócrates and am starting to worry.

Orlando told me that he got a job on the 19th so won’t be able to help me with filming and lighting. I order a 3 point lighting kit from eBay and learn about lighting on YouTube.

Riaz is going to help me set up the cameras, Andrew and Nico will be in charge of sound, Britta will prepare food, and Deirdre, Tony and Asher will be there to help on the day.

On the morning of the 17th I get an email saying that Sócrates will be staying at the Park Plaza County Hall 1 but no information about how to meet him.

I decide to buy tickets for the talk at the Southbank and I would go up to him after the talk and we could arrange for the following day.

On the 18th Deirdre, Tony, Asher and I go to the talk at the Southbank. It was so packed, I think that all the Brazilians living in London were there. At the end of the talk there was a queue to meet Sócrates and get something signed but after a while Sócrates had enough and left. He is mingling in the crowd and as I get close to him an agent / PR person asks me what I want, I say that I will be filming him the following day, she asks me if I am with the BBC and I say no, it’s just an art project. She ignores me completely and then the abruptly they decide to leave and that’s when I gave up.

Then Deirdre starts running after them: “Sócrates, Sócrates” and I start running after Deirdre. Deirdre almost grabs Sócrates and I tell him that I am the person who was in touch with him about filming. Finally he acknowledges me and the PR Agent person asks him in Portuguese “do you know this low life?” maybe not these exact words but it felt like that and he smiles and says yes, that they were going to film a Socratic conversation together. She asks me to give her my phone number and she would get in touch with me.

The next morning, the 19th, we set up early in Es’ studio, we don’t know when we will get a call and when Sócrates will come but it’s best to be ready. Around noon, it dawns on me that the agent had never intended to get in touch with me. Tony and I get a minicab to the hotel where Sócrates is staying.

It’s quite a smart hotel, I tell reception that I am here to see Sócrates. He tells us to wait at the Bar. Sócrates comes down wearing shorts and flip-flops and I can see he has a hangover, he says that he is going to have a shower and then he will be ready to go.

Result! I text Jane (the translator) and tell her to come to Es’ studio. She is rightfully quite annoyed as I hadn’t been able to give her a time until now, she tells me that she is in IKEA with her mum and that she will come when she has finished shopping, I say “please text me when you’re on your way”.

When Sócrates comes down, I decide that that best thing to do now is to slow things down “shall we have a beer?” Sócrates is up for it and my new plan is to stay in the hotel and drink beer until I get a text from Jane saying that she is on her way.

Good plan, apart from the fact that bottled beer in that hotel cost a fortune. After 3 rounds Jane texts me “on my way” and we get into a minicab.

South Bermondsey and North Peckham was very different in 2010, gentrification has started but it still looked quite rough and I remember sensing that he was starting to have second thoughts. He was in a minicab with two strangers (me and Tony) and the landscape look less and less like the London he imagined.

Jane finally arrives and we can start:

“I’ve been thinking about the concept of beauty in football …”

https://vimeo.com/106209174

31.5.2020.

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