In São Paulo Visible

ABSTRACT:This essay reads the collection of documentary short films entitled Bem Vindo a São Paulo (2004) as exemplifying the challenges of producing a latter day city-symphony. If early twentieth century films set out to capture and make sense of modern cities through images and visual practices, many of the different shorts in Bem Vindo a São Paulo suggest instead that global cities like São Paulo can no longer be made intelligible through visual means. In this context, sound – words, music and sound – is brought in to bear the weight that the visual can no longer sustain and serve as the register in which proximity and sense are promised.