Curitiba: Urban Maze

Curitiba is a maze of ideas, people and contradictions. This short-film shows that perspective of this important brazilian city, with its statues, ghost buses, brokens sidewalks and capybaras.

After living my whole life in a small countryside town, moving to a state capital like Curitiba introduced me to new ways of seeing the world. I tried to convey this experience in the film: the initial confusion and shock that I felt with the harsh realities of a big city, but then also the wonders that made me fall in love for it. I was inspired to experiment with the new techniques of directing and editing that I studied during my first year of film school, and also to develop my own style, bringing a lot of influences into a mix: classic Hollywood, silent films, Soviet montage, Nouvelle Vague and classic music. For the first time I worked with a 4:3 aspect ratio, allowing me not only to match the verticality of the city and show more of the sky, but also to reinforce the feeling of being in the middle of the tall walls of a maze. Everything was filmed with a smartphone and a tripod, just by myself walking around touristic points of the city or in my own neighborhood.