Categories
ENVIRONMENT UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

The Green Giant?

When people think of Brasil and the environment the first thing that will spring to mind is the Amazon, specifically deforestation. What is lost in the noise is that Brasil and the Brazilian economy are amongst the greenest on the planet and that levels of deforestation have actually plummeted in the past ten years. Brasil has the […]

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CULTURE FILM UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

9 Essential Brazilian films of 2014

Accompanying an unprecedented level of national attention, Brazil’s always vibrant cinema community has had a number of international festival successes this year, exploring themes and diverse realities that break from what the world usually sees of the country. This is a selection of Brazilian cinema’s 2014 highlights. Praia do futuro Getúlio Casa Grande O Lobo atrás da […]

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PHOTOGRAPHY UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

René Burri’s Brasil

  Swiss Photographer René Burri (9 April 1933 – 20 October 2014) was renowned for his iconic photographs of major political, historical and cultural events and key figures of the second half of the 20th century. Amongst his most celebrated work such as portraits of Che Guevara and Pablo Picasso he spent much time in Brasil, taking iconic pictures […]

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DEMOCRACY EDITORIAL POLITICS UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

Reality versus Red Scare

Losing elections isn’t easy, and Brasil’s anti-communist paranoia is almost as old as communism itself, but in 2014, the decades-old fantasy of a Marxist takeover of the country is being amplified by a small fringe of Brasil’s right. They have their mentor in astrologer & ultra-conservative philosopher Olavo de Carvalho, who is based in Richmond, Virginia. Their principal bogeymen are Foro do […]

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CULTURE MUSIC NORTH EAST UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

Os Nordestinos!

In The 1970’s, while the military dictatorship was crumbling and before the economic crisis of the 1980’s kicked in, Brasil had a happy interlude; post-tropicalism, a vivid, unique & independent rock culture emerged, and artists from the Nordeste took over the charts. Richard Klein presents his 8 essential artists of this moment. Alceu Valenca With […]

Categories
ELECTION POLITICS UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

Reinaldo Lobo: The Revolt of the Elite

13/02/2014. A curious phenomenon is occurring in Brasil. Since June last year, a considerable number of protesters who have taken to the streets against the World Cup, the government, Cuban doctors, the price of the subway / bus or to support anti-corruption protests, are not leftist students or even troublemakers; these are people who belong to the economic, […]

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DEMOCRACY ELECTION GLOBO HISTORY MEDIA POLITICS UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

Brasil’s Citizen Kanes

Brasil has a healthy and noisy media landscape; from sophisticated daily papers and weekly magazines comparable to any in Europe, right through to trashy supermarket rags like you see across the United States. But at the top level there is a deep undercurrent of conservatism that often goes unnoticed, a conservatism that pre-dates any of […]

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ARCHITECTURE CULTURE HISTORY UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

8 Essential books on Brazilian architecture

Neither is it the right angle, which attracts me, nor the straight line, hard, inflexible, made by men. What attracts me is the curve, free and sensual, the curve I find in the mountains of my country, in the winding course of its rivers, in the waves of the sea, in the body of the […]

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ARCHITECTURE CITIES HISTORY PHOTOGRAPHY UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

São Paulo, 1947

In 1947 LIFE Magazine published an extensive feature on the “New York of the South”, São Paulo. Here are those Dmitri Kessel photographs in full. (Source: Skyscrapercity). [qpp]

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CULTURE HISTORY PATREON ONLY UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

8 Essential books on Brasil

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