Echoes in the Desert. Landscape, People, and Affection in Sertao de Acrílico Azul Piscina

Abstract

The article traces the affective modes of conceiving the natural and human landscape of the the Brazilian Norheast in Sertao de Acrílico Azul Piscina (Karim Ainouz and Marcelo Gomes, 2004). This poetic travel documentary maps the space through the appropriation of previous sounds and images. As a way of echo, the rewriting of the desert points towards the absence of the "People" in the glimpses of the daily life of the ordinary man. As if it were a residue of the past, the landscape is the object of an exercise of affective contemplation enhanced by the predominantly haptic character that the film shows visually. In this way, drawing "haptic paths" that make it possible to "touch" the traces of the past, Gomes and A'inouz configured a new affective map of the sertao.