The film Nada É (Nothing Is, 2014), which has been chosen to take part in the 31st Sao Paulo Biennial, addresses the rise of the metropolis, taking the case of the city of Alcântara, in Northeastern Brazil, as starting point. With the news that the Emperor of Brazil Dom Pedro II would come ashore in Alcântara, a strong rivalry set in among the aristocrats, who began to construct palatial mansions to host the emperor. The dispute was in vain because Dom Pedro II never arrived in those lands. The suspension of the constructions and the passage of time transformed the city into a scene of centenary ruins. The festival of Divino Espírito Santo is held yet today in the region as a celebration of the wealthy moment that Alcântara experienced and, for fifteen days, the population still dresses up like the nobility of the monarchical Brazil. Paradoxically, it is also in Alcântara that one finds an important Satellite and Rocket Launch Center, which deems the city an important center of scientific studies concerning the future of humanity. In Alcântara, an ancestral past gets along with the most advanced aspirations of a future, and Nada É explores this juxtaposition, aiming to produce an encounter between various temporal strata.
