Short-doc about - "A Cara de Brasília"

This short-documentary is about the creative process of one of the biggest art projects I’ve ever made for my home town, Brasília-Brazil.

I won’t take too long here because the documentary, which is subtitled in English, already speaks for itself.

Roughly translating the project could be called “The Face of Brasília” where 50 people between artists, entrepreneurs, pioneers of the city, journalists and famous street workers were selected by me and my staff to be photographed as a representation of the city in their respective fields.

The basic concept of this project was to photograph those people who helped this political and administrative capital become a real livable city, building its cultural particularities and building Brasilia’s self-identity since its first 50 years.

Before starting the project at full-speed, I was knocking on doors and inviting people on my own to be photographed by myself in a form of cultural inventory of the city. Since this moment, I realized that one of the best ways to do any art project is to create based on collaboration. The more people I photographed the easier was for the next invitees to accept the invitation. This was clearly noticed when people started to invite themselves to participate in the project and it was also easily perceived when the staff behind the making-of started to grow.

A couple of sad things also happened during the creation of this project, at the beginning, I was photographing some important pioneers that helped build the capital of Brasil 50 years ago and some of them passed away during the exhibition. Men and women that bravely built my city and my art project, weren’t able to see its conclusion in life.

I believe that any creative production is the artist passive-income stream, so based on this premise, I will probably make a second edition of this project with new exclusive photos and texts and since I’m now living in Montreal-CA, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to make a “La Face de Montréal” in the future. Right?

Thanks for reading it!

About Siibii's - YOY - Music Video Production

I didn’t had much time to write about this video clip, but now I finally managed to say what I needed to say:

I feel really privileged to direct and to express my artistic vision about the melody and lyrics created by Siibii Petawabano, a non-binary-indigenous singer originally from The Cree Nation of Mistissini and a Canada Walk of Fame's RBC Emerging Musician that is getting each day more attention through their incredible voice.

I met them on 2020 when I was invited by Patrick Shannon to photograph their multi-awarded Wish We Were Older video clip where they still named themselves as Angel Baribeau.

Fast forward to 2022, Siibii’s producer approached me with a new single called “YOY” to be launched at the end of the year. They had a new concept and branding for Siibii’s name that needed a new presentation to the public. 

My creative process usually begins with a discovery meeting, where I listen to both the producer and the singer about why do they wanna create a video and what do they consider to be a successful final cut. After that, I step aside for a couple of days to later bring them back a visual concept with an execution plan.

Honestly, every time I work with great singers, the process of creating a good video is so much easier. The beauty of the final cut is already in their voices. Sometimes I feel that I just have to open the camera and register the moment.

This case was exactly that, specially because every time I asked Siibii what do they think about something, they answered me back with: “I trust your vision, Alex!”

This beautiful song speaks about life, drugs, procrastination and self-judgement, so I needed to find something that visually translated this invisible force holding people back mixed with the dispersion of attention that we have to face every day.

This time I trusted the cinematography to Youssef Nassar, a well-experienced cinematographer recently arrived from Lebanon and now living in Montréal. I asked him to shoot with an anamorphic lens to intensify Siibii’s isolation in this world and he bought the idea. Sometimes we feel that our world is open but we feel stuck. That’s what the song was about and that’s how I managed to intensify this lonely feeling.

During the production we had the usual challenges like time, weather and a small apartment with a family of kittens, and it wouldn’t be my kind of film if I didn’t pushed the artist to perform beyond their musical performance.

When we’re on camera, we have to embrace it. And Siibii gave their best right on the beginning of the video.

Thanks for reading!