Cinema, arquitetura e sociedade: registros de um mundo quente - 14ᵃ Bienal Internacional de Arquitetura de São Paulo

How can cities and their architectures face climate emergencies in the face of exponential tragedy, beyond construction strategies and their technicalities?

Faced with such uncertainties, cinema—and culture in general—presents itself as a fundamental tool for denunciation, raising questions that challenge everyone. But not only that. Sequenced moving images are fertile ground for imagining other futures, reinventing social dynamics, broadening the debate on consumption, and truly agreeing on a balance between humans, built space, and the environment.

The challenges are stacked up.

This film screening, aligned with the curatorial thinking of the 14th BIAsp – Extremes: Architectures for a Hot World, seeks to critically provoke the public through a selection of feature and short films, both fictional and documentary, Brazilian and non-Brazilian, framing human rights, traditional knowledge, science and experimental constructions, extraction of natural resources, preservation and climate justice as central characters.

Rafael Blas – curator/programmer

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All screenings are free. Tickets can be picked up at the Cinemateca box office one hour before screenings.

Cinematheque: Largo Sen. Raul Cardoso, 207 – Vila Clementino, São Paulo – SP, 04021-070

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SESSION 1

BREAKING

Documentary, short film, 23 minutes
Year: 2024
Country: Brazil
Directed by: Janaina Wagner
Production: Janaina Wagner

Synopsis

A counter-spell, QUEBRANTE explores the ruins of the Trans-Amazonian Highway BR-230 and its phantasmagoria, portraying its stones and its ghosts. Set in the small town of Rurópolis, Pará—the first to be built on the highway, serving as a base for its construction workers—QUEBRANTE follows Dona Erismar, known locally as "The Cave Woman." A retired elementary school teacher, Dona Erismar was responsible for discovering the region's caves: she entered the dark, unknown holes to their ends, holding only a candle and a lighter tied to her pants—in case the flame went out. A conversation between the stones and the moon, QUEBRANTE is loosely inspired by Robert Smithson's project THE TRULY UNDERGROUND CINEMA (1971) and Maya Deren's film THE VERY EYE OF THE NIGHT (1958).

IRACEMA: AN AMAZONIAN SEX

Documentary/fiction, feature film, 90 minutes
Year: 1974
Country: Brazil
Directed by: Jorge Bodanzky, Orlando Senna
Production: Stopfilm

Synopsis

In 1970, a truck driver from the South, in Belém, Pará, during the Círio de Nazaré festival, meets Iracema, a young Indigenous prostitute. He gives her a ride, dropping her off in a small village on the side of the road. The trip, like the entire film, serves as a pretext for depicting the region's problems—deforestation, poor working and health conditions, and the sale of peasants, all in conflict with fanciful institutional propaganda.

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FULL PROGRAM

September 17 | Wednesday | 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Session 1 | Quebrante + Iracema: an Amazonian sex

September 21 | Sunday | 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Session 2 | Interior of the Earth + Top

September 24th | Wednesday | 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Session 3 | Colors Burn + Sky Falls

10/1 | Wednesday | 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Session 4 | Heyari + Fisherman's Street No. 6

02.10 | Thursday | 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Session 5 | Cold Recife + Fisherman's Street No. 6

08.10 | Wednesday | 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Session 6 | The Institute of Weather Modification + The fall of the sky

09.10 | Thursday | 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Session 7 | The Time It Takes + The Silence of the Oysters

Participate in the program of debates, workshops and associated activities!

TODAY (10.10)

2:30 pm – table Risk-Free Periphery in the Context of Climate Change

4pm – table Knowing to Transform: Community Climate Risk Reduction and Adaptation Plans

6:30 pm – table Inclusive Adaptation: Nature-Based Solutions in the Peripheries

9am – Drawing Workshop: Oscar Niemeyer's Architecture in Ibirapuera Park and the Climate Challenge

IN THE NEXT DAYS (11 to 14.10)

ATTENTION the table Palmas: For 36 years, the ecological capital of Tocantins which would be held on 10/11 | 7pm was canceled.

11.10 and 12.10 | 9am – workshop Inventa(rio) Fronteiras: Playing for Multispecies Cities

11.10 | 10am – workshop Elémenterre teaching bag

11.10 | 11am – table Learning to inhabit the Anthropocene: the crisis of architecture

11.10 | 2pm – table Architecture for Learning and Civic Use

11.10 | 3pm – table Culture and Public Architecture

11.10 – 15h – workshop Elémenterre teaching bag

11.10 | 4pm – table Reconnecting with Nature & Circular Design

11.10 | 5pm – table Architecture of Belonging: Interpreting Heritage Through Place

12.10 | 10am – table Experience: Climate Refuges and Naturalized Public Spaces, with Eco-Neighborhood

12.10 | 10:30 am – table Childhoods and Climate: Climate Justice in Vulnerable Territories

12.10 | 10:30 am – Windsock Workshop with the Floating Collective

12.10 | 3pm – table Doing a lot with a little: architectures for a planet in transition with Esteban Benavides from Al Borde office

12.10 | 4:30 pm – table Earth – building a sustainable and democratic future

12.10 | 5:45 pm – table French presence at the Biennale and screening of the film AJAP – Albums of Young Architects and Landscape Architects

13.10 – activity Pantanal Action at IABsp

10/14 | 10am – table Urgent Panorama! Space as an act of permanence

14.10 | 6pm – Launch of the “Nature-Based Education” Guide

JOIN! IT'S ALL FREE!

And there's much more until October 19th!

NOTE OF CONDOLENCE

With deep sorrow, the Brazilian Institute of Architects – São Paulo Department (IABsp) mourns the passing of architect and landscape architect Kongjian Yu, a global leader in ecological urbanism, and the members of his team who accompanied him, tragically killed during the filming of a documentary. The institute is honored to have had him as a participant in the 14th São Paulo International Architecture Biennial, where his transformative vision strengthened the dialogue between global challenges and local realities. IABsp emphasizes that Yu's contribution, which transcends borders, will remain an inspiration for generations and expresses its condolences to China, to the families of all the deceased, to his friends, and to all those impacted by his genius and dedication. Read the full note here.

Cinema, architecture and society: records of a hot world

Session 1 | Quebrante + Iracema: an Amazonian sex