EEFF 2018: Brasilia Life After Design

19th April 2018

The one thing you never think about when living in a sprawling metropolis is how did it come to be. Looking at the buildings in London the way they are cheek by jowl, it doesn’t look as if a lot of planning went into it. Brasilia: Life After Design will change that point of view. There’s a lot of planning especially when creating a new (ahem) planned city, buildings aren’t the only consideration. The physical buildings have to be sturdy enough to accommodate not only people but the hopes of a nation, this idea is at the beating heart of Brasilia: Life After Design. This documentary will show you that design plays a significant impact on society and whether it succeeds or fails.

Bart Simpson’s documentary takes a critical look at the reasons why Brasilia was created, the process of creating a city in the 1950s and also the hopes, some of them naive especially the idea that class wouldn’t matter. The film uses archive footage of the designer – not only of why the city was planned out in the way it was but his experiences whilst it was being built. However, the success of this documentary is to focus on four individuals living in the city now and their experiences. What is clear although never expressly stated is that there are always winners and losers and the sad irony is the losers in Brasilia are the very ones that architects Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemayer had set out to help.

Brasilia: Life After Design is a fascinating documentary. The slow decline from idealism to realism and how people actually live in Brasilia today is is both fascinating and unsurprising. You don’t need to be a design aficionado to watch this documentary, it is made for everyone and anyone who is fascinated by the impact design has on your life.

Brasilia: Life After design will have its London Premiere at Rich Mix 26 April 6pm + panel discussion with Director & Hattie Hartman (The Architects’ Journal) as part of the East End Film Festival.

The East End Film Festival 2018 runs from 11 – 29 April 2018.

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