Situated 10,000 kilometers from the Amazon and 18 hours from Rio, the city of Brasília — the capital of Brazil — is a mythical place: a concrete utopia born from the desert.
In 1956, during the rebirth of Brazilian democracy, visionary architect Oscar Niemeyer and urban planner Lúcio Costa created an urban plan and structures that sought to meticulously manage the daily activities of human life. The declared goal was to create the space that would give rise to the “new Brazilian citizen.”
Now, the austere beauty of the city serves as a backdrop for isolation, changing values, and the dynamic power and politics of today’s Brazil.
This is what the documentary “Brasilia: Life After Design” aims to show. The film tells the story of a city in conflict between its environment and its inhabitants. Despite the population growing each year, the city’s plan itself cannot change. It was designed for 500,000 people, and now more than two and a half million live within its borders. Despite the best intentions of its creators, people were a secondary consideration. And, to live there, people need to break the city’s rules.
The haunting atmosphere of Niemeyer and Costa’s dream echoes through the lives of a range of characters, each trying to leave their mark on today’s city: Sergio, the staunch urban planner who defends the city’s plan but knows it must adapt; Helize, who is studying to become a federal public servant — the dream of so many Brazilian students. And Willians, a street vendor by day, who tries to find a meaningful connection in a city built to divide.
Brasilia: Life After Design takes us to a city rarely seen by the international viewer: what is it like to live in someone else’s idea?
The film is directed by multi-award-winning filmmaker Bart Simpson, best known for his work on films like ‘The Corporation’ and ‘Big Boys Gone Bananas’. It will be screened in New York during the Margaret Mead Film Festival at the American Museum of Natural History from October 19 to 22.