High-Rise (2009), a Documentary about Penhouse Owners in Brazil, Screens at 92Y.

By Rodrigo Brandão

High-Rise (Um Lugar Ao Sol), Friday, April 2, 7:30pm.

Set to premiere in New York City on April 2, 2010, Gabriel Mascaro’s feature documentary High Rise (2009) mixes interviews with nine penthouse residents, all of them owners of panoramic and highly priced views of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Recife, into a daft analysis of the Brazilian dominant class.

Director Gabriel Mascaro

During the film, penthouse residents open up their homes to reveal their thoughts on social inequality, politics, and the world that surrounds them, as well as discussing more intimate subjects such as their desires, dreams, conflicts, insecurities, prejudices and personal histories.

In a recent interview for the Brazilian blog CinemaScópio, Mascaro said that “the film deals with desire, visibility, insecurity, status and power,” also tackling a growing convergence of social isolationism with urban “verticalization” in the Brazilian urban landscape. More than a simple look at class inequality, High Rise is a philosophically daring (and challenging) examination of the ways in which urban landscapes are intertwined with socioeconomic meanings.