Brazilian Cinema and the Aesthetics of Ruins

Guilherme Carrera’s compelling book examines imagery of ruins in contemporary Brazilian documentary film-making and considers these representations in the context of Brazilian society. Carrera groups these films into three distinct types: firstly, unconventional documentaries focused on Brasília - The Age of Stone (2013) and White Out, Black In (2014)); Rio de Janeiro - ExPerimetral (2016), The Harbour (2013), Tropical Curse (2016), and HU Enigma (2011)); and indigenous territories - Corumbiara: They Shoot Indians, Don’t They? (2009), Tava, The House of Stone (2012), Two Villages, One Path (2008), and Guarani Exile (2011)). In portraying ruinscapes in different ways, the book argues that these unconventional films articulate critiques of the notions of progress and (under)development in the Brazilian nation.
Carrera’s study invites the reader to walk amid the documentary debris and reflect upon the strategies of spatial representation employed by the films’ directors. It addresses this body of contemporary films in relation to the legacies of Cinema Novo, Tropicália and Cinema Marginal, asking how these present-day films dialogue with or depart from previous traditions. Through this dialogue, he argues, the selected films challenge not only documentary-making conventions but also the country’s official narrative.