Lucas Marques

ABSTRACT SUBMITTED: On Ogun’s Railroad is a documentary feature film that follows the paths forged by José Adário dos Santos, better known as “Zé Diabo,” one of the last and best-known orisha blacksmiths in Salvador, Bahia, as well as a contemporary black artist and Candomblé priest. For over 60 years, he has produced sublime iron sculptures known as ferramentas de orixás, artifacts that, after a series of technical preparations and rituals, become the materialized gods themselves. To perform his craft, Zé Diabo claims that he must follow the “path of Ogun,” the deity of iron, roads, war, and technological and agricultural knowledge. His entire family lineage is descended from this orisha, which directly links to the Yoruba people and the sacred work of blacksmiths. The film seeks to follow the creation of a god-artifact while Zé Diabo recreates, through memory and encounters with other blacksmiths in Brazil and Africa, his own artistic and religious path. By following the railroads of Ogun, the documentary explores memory, Afro-diasporic technologies, and the intertwined stories between gods, people, and things in religions of African origin.