Abstract
Although many films produced from Cinema da Retomada onwards have relied on realism as the most appropriate means to depict the tangible world, present-day production explores other possibilities to cope with reality. Scholar Angela Prysthon (2015) coined the term “realism under erasure” referring to films that opt for investing in science-fiction or horror genres in order to approach contemporary Brazil. In this paper, I explore how the cinema of Adirley Queirós and Ana Vaz visually investigate the origins of Brasília and the consequences of its invention. By challenging traditional documentary filmmaking, both artists blur the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction, shedding light on what they name as sci-fi documentaries. At the same time, they also challenge the official history by proposing a new way of (re)telling Brasília’s history.
Highlights
The concept of the unviable nation (Ramos 2003) relating to the unlikeliness of Brazil becoming a stable and prosperous country has been widely explored by Brazilian filmmakers of Cinema da Retomada
If Brazilian cinema from the first decade of 2000 has been heavily marked by a belief in realism as the most appropriate means to portray and scrutinise national issues, Prysthon suggests that many present-day films are devoted to “realism under erasure”,2 a cinematic language that plays with the very idea of realness by focusing on more ambiguous and thought-provoking narratives
The author is not necessarily labelling the strategy as a new one but underlining it as a prominent characteristic of the ongoing approach to reality. She focuses her attention on the “deliberate shock between realism and an excessive artifice that disarticulates and destabilises the effects of real” in many films; that excessive artifice achieved through the revitalisation of film genres, such as horror or science-fiction, within the national production
Summary
Coming from quite distinct backgrounds, Adirley Queirós and Ana Vaz are drawn to discuss the advent of Brasília as the other side (or the underside) of so-called national progress. Before going even deeper into the cinematic construction of Brasília as the sort of parallel universe in The Age of Stone, Vaz sharpened her approach to urban architecture in her second experimental documentary Entre Temps (2011) This short-film focuses on the demolition of ZUP buildings in France. This is a key concept to bear in mind, as Vaz’s filmography, The Age of Stone, constantly relates to it by challenging the traditional documentary mode, but human perception of the world Her third film ends what she referred to as a Trilogy of Utopias by opening a fruitful dialogue with Sacris Pulso and Entre Temps. In highlighting both work-defining characteristics, Schefer (ibid) believes that form and content are not and should not be taken as separate domains in Vaz’s cinema: “If the motives of Vaz’s cinema are the engine of its formal inventiveness, the latter gives rise to new perspectives on the present, history, and representative forms”
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
