Fordlândia Panacea

In 1928, industrialist Henry Ford built a company town in the Brazilian jungle and established a rubber plantation. Within a few years his industrial utopia collapsed, coming to an end in 1945. Fordlândia was largely abandoned and became known as a ghost town.

Following on from her previous film Fordlandia Malaise, in this documentary Susana de Sousa Dias evokes the spirits that still haunt the place: of those who built the town and died in the process, from snakebites, infections, the blazing sun, and exhaustion; and of those who once lived there but are no longer remembered.

Above all, the film lets us hear from the people who live there now. Since the early 21st century, Fordlândia’s population has been growing. Recent archaeological findings show that the history of this settlement goes back much further than Ford’s utopian illusion, which should not be allowed to dictate the land’s future. The images unfold dreamily, as if the camera itself were a floating spirit, releasing Fordlândia from the imprint of colonialism.