Brasília amidst ruins: The sci-fi documentaries of Adirley Queirós and Ana Vaz

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.