00:00:21.239 --> 00:00:22.532
Dear Daughter,

00:00:23.575 --> 00:00:25.702
We miss you, of course

00:00:26.369 --> 00:00:28.705
and we love you, clearly.

00:00:30.206 --> 00:00:32.667
It is so hard
to be away from you.

00:00:37.380 --> 00:00:41.885
But soon we’ll greet you
with open arms.

00:00:44.346 --> 00:00:46.640
Until then, a thousand kisses.

00:00:48.433 --> 00:00:50.018
Oh, one more thing...

00:00:50.268 --> 00:00:53.980
Watch out for
spiders and scorpions!

00:00:57.275 --> 00:01:01.237
A big hug from
that old idol and role model

00:01:01.529 --> 00:01:03.198
your Dad.

00:01:12.999 --> 00:01:14.292
Dear Dad,

00:01:15.085 --> 00:01:18.838
you sent me this letter
when I was at summer camp.

00:01:26.137 --> 00:01:27.555
Soon after

00:01:27.806 --> 00:01:30.433
things fell apart between us.

00:01:37.482 --> 00:01:40.276
And then, suddenly,
you were gone.

00:01:43.530 --> 00:01:46.991
I was only 14 when you died

00:01:47.617 --> 00:01:52.580
leaving me with the heartache
of our last words.

00:02:07.262 --> 00:02:09.931
I left Brazil for
a new life in California

00:02:10.432 --> 00:02:13.059
with only memories of my father,

00:02:13.643 --> 00:02:15.437
the bitter and the sweet.

00:02:19.065 --> 00:02:21.192
But now, so many years later,

00:02:21.818 --> 00:02:24.362
news arrives about
my father’s legacy

00:02:24.863 --> 00:02:26.906
that reopens childhood wounds

00:02:27.157 --> 00:02:29.117
and calls me
back home to São Paulo,

00:02:31.661 --> 00:02:34.873
searching for my father
in the work he created.

00:02:55.393 --> 00:02:56.895
This is what brought me back.

00:02:59.397 --> 00:03:03.818
It’s shocking to see what’s happened
to my father’s architectural masterpiece,

00:03:04.402 --> 00:03:06.488
knowing what it once was.

00:03:25.882 --> 00:03:27.467
So beautiful, so impressive.

00:03:29.052 --> 00:03:33.431
It was a daring project
at the time.

00:03:33.932 --> 00:03:36.559
It was unique.

00:03:39.979 --> 00:03:41.648
Crystal clear purity

00:03:41.898 --> 00:03:43.900
like a perfect glass prism

00:03:44.234 --> 00:03:45.443
very transparent.

00:03:47.153 --> 00:03:49.489
A precious thing.

00:03:49.906 --> 00:03:53.034
Made of glass,
very well detailed

00:03:53.451 --> 00:03:55.829
with a sophisticated design.

00:04:04.087 --> 00:04:06.798
A central, totemic element.

00:04:07.632 --> 00:04:09.592
It’s iconic.

00:04:11.761 --> 00:04:13.346
It is so extraordinary

00:04:14.097 --> 00:04:16.558
that to this day, nobody
knows what to do with it.

00:04:22.021 --> 00:04:24.482
The glass building,

00:04:24.691 --> 00:04:27.110
the great mirror of Brazil,

00:04:27.443 --> 00:04:30.029
in which everyone
must look at themselves.

00:04:37.787 --> 00:04:39.581
A vision of the future,

00:04:40.415 --> 00:04:43.126
24 stories above São Paulo.

00:04:44.127 --> 00:04:45.545
The Pele de Vidro.

00:04:46.254 --> 00:04:47.797
Skin of Glass.

00:04:49.632 --> 00:04:52.844
My father designed it in the 1960s,

00:04:53.678 --> 00:04:57.015
and I was conceived
at the same time as the building.

00:05:03.104 --> 00:05:06.649
My father was everything
a daughter could have dreamed of.

00:05:08.234 --> 00:05:09.235
Playful,

00:05:09.903 --> 00:05:10.904
charming,

00:05:11.654 --> 00:05:12.614
affectionate.

00:05:16.993 --> 00:05:18.453
He was born in Paris,

00:05:18.953 --> 00:05:21.122
to parents who
immigrated from Syria,

00:05:21.706 --> 00:05:24.334
and then,
made their new life in Brazil.

00:05:28.171 --> 00:05:30.548
Curious, determined,

00:05:31.215 --> 00:05:32.634
the top of his class.

00:05:33.468 --> 00:05:37.889
He became a prolific architect
as soon as he graduated.

00:05:40.850 --> 00:05:43.353
But who was my father
as a young man?

00:05:45.605 --> 00:05:50.109
Going through these photos makes
me realize how little I know about his past.

00:05:52.028 --> 00:05:55.573
We never got a chance
to talk about his early years.

00:05:58.368 --> 00:06:01.704
At 29, he met my mother, Graca.

00:06:02.622 --> 00:06:06.459
Like him, a child
of Syrian-Lebanese immigrants.

00:06:08.211 --> 00:06:11.214
And together, they began building dreams.

00:06:16.052 --> 00:06:20.974
By their wedding day,
my father had already designed our family home.

00:06:28.481 --> 00:06:32.902
Roger Zmekhol followed
a previous generation

00:06:33.069 --> 00:06:35.196
of immigrant architects

00:06:35.321 --> 00:06:38.616
who built a lot
here in São Paulo.

00:06:39.158 --> 00:06:44.414
They came here
with a knowledge

00:06:44.664 --> 00:06:48.710
and an ambition
that is typical of immigrants.

00:06:49.419 --> 00:06:51.963
Everything felt possible in those days.

00:06:53.297 --> 00:06:56.759
It was a time of
great hope and optimism in Brazil.

00:07:11.774 --> 00:07:15.737
Bossa Nova was introduced
to the world in 1961.

00:07:16.612 --> 00:07:18.072
But in the 1950s

00:07:18.406 --> 00:07:23.870
architecture was the
great artistic export of Brazil.

00:07:31.419 --> 00:07:33.379
Brazil wasn’t just hopeful

00:07:33.671 --> 00:07:35.882
it was sure of its future.

00:07:36.466 --> 00:07:38.551
We’re going to be big.

00:07:39.343 --> 00:07:41.304
We’re going to be important.

00:07:41.471 --> 00:07:45.016
We have something
to contribute to the world

00:07:47.268 --> 00:07:49.312
and Brasilia was a manifesto

00:07:49.479 --> 00:07:51.564
of the future
that Brazil hoped for.

00:07:54.525 --> 00:07:56.819
Brasilia, the new capital city,

00:07:57.153 --> 00:08:00.740
was built from the ground up
in three short years.

00:08:03.284 --> 00:08:07.455
Our country was moving toward
modernization and social reform

00:08:07.955 --> 00:08:10.750
after centuries of extreme inequality.

00:08:17.423 --> 00:08:20.635
My parents visited Brasilia
during construction.

00:08:23.429 --> 00:08:27.642
I can only imagine
how this epic project inspired my father.

00:08:33.898 --> 00:08:35.441
At the age of 32,

00:08:35.900 --> 00:08:40.029
he was beginning the
most significant work of his lifetime,

00:08:41.531 --> 00:08:42.740
the Pele de Vidro.

00:08:49.789 --> 00:08:53.668
That building had a major role

00:08:53.835 --> 00:08:56.295
in Brazilian architectural history.

00:08:58.131 --> 00:09:01.134
That “glass skin”
was a milestone.

00:09:02.510 --> 00:09:07.181
Your father introduced something
we didn’t have much in Brazil:

00:09:07.390 --> 00:09:11.394
the use of glass at that scale.

00:09:12.395 --> 00:09:15.231
The owners,
the Paes de Almeida family

00:09:15.815 --> 00:09:18.234
were the kings
of glass in Brazil.

00:09:19.026 --> 00:09:20.903
They had an exclusive
business importing

00:09:21.070 --> 00:09:22.738
high quality glass.

00:09:26.075 --> 00:09:29.787
Modernist architecture
carries this moral idea

00:09:30.413 --> 00:09:33.833
that a corporation with
a headquarters made of glass

00:09:34.333 --> 00:09:37.503
is saying publicly
“I have nothing to hide.”

00:09:38.421 --> 00:09:41.591
“I show myself entirely.”

00:09:41.883 --> 00:09:45.303
“My activity is an open book.”

00:09:46.053 --> 00:09:49.098
This work, which
I think is hugely important

00:09:49.849 --> 00:09:52.059
is a jewel of Modernism

00:09:52.560 --> 00:09:56.772
a symbol of a time when
Brazil felt powerful.

00:09:57.231 --> 00:10:03.487
But it’s both a witness and victim
of our hangover

00:10:03.738 --> 00:10:07.575
from dreams of greatness
that were never fulfilled.

00:10:32.225 --> 00:10:34.977
Dad, you could
never have imagined

00:10:35.144 --> 00:10:37.855
what has become
of your Pele de Vidro.

00:10:39.523 --> 00:10:43.945
It’s occupied by hundreds
of people who are homeless.

00:10:45.488 --> 00:10:49.158
I want to go inside
and meet them.

00:10:50.910 --> 00:10:53.246
What happened in this place,

00:10:53.371 --> 00:10:54.830
in this country,

00:10:55.539 --> 00:10:57.833
that led to this?

00:11:12.139 --> 00:11:17.311
Construction of the Pele de Vidro
was almost finished in 1964,

00:11:17.687 --> 00:11:20.314
when Brazil’s military staged a coup,

00:11:20.690 --> 00:11:22.984
with backing from the United States.

00:11:24.360 --> 00:11:26.612
It was the height of the Cold War,

00:11:27.196 --> 00:11:30.700
and the U.S. feared that
Brazil was leaning toward communism.

00:11:34.412 --> 00:11:37.039
21 years of dictatorship followed,

00:11:37.873 --> 00:11:41.210
brutally ending Brazil’s
hopes for social reform.

00:11:43.754 --> 00:11:46.549
Our promising, tropical democracy

00:11:47.258 --> 00:11:48.259
vanished.

00:11:58.728 --> 00:12:00.896
But I was living in a child’s world,

00:12:01.939 --> 00:12:04.233
safe in the home my father built,

00:12:04.567 --> 00:12:07.194
surrounded by family and friends.

00:12:10.072 --> 00:12:13.993
Yara, our closest neighbor,
was like another mother to me.

00:12:17.413 --> 00:12:19.123
It was a cheerful house

00:12:19.665 --> 00:12:22.460
and very spacious,
open to the outdoors.

00:12:24.795 --> 00:12:27.673
Everyone’s birthday
was celebrated there.

00:12:28.007 --> 00:12:29.800
There was always
a celebration happening.

00:12:31.844 --> 00:12:35.806
Your father
was always in a good mood.

00:12:37.600 --> 00:12:41.520
Very affectionate,
especially with you

00:12:41.771 --> 00:12:44.398
because you were
the girl of the house.

00:12:46.942 --> 00:12:48.986
You were cute.

00:12:56.202 --> 00:13:00.414
What do you remember about
those dictatorship times?

00:13:00.706 --> 00:13:03.709
Look, the truth is
it was all very orderly

00:13:04.168 --> 00:13:06.879
because everyone
was a little afraid

00:13:07.046 --> 00:13:12.635
there might be
an informer around.

00:13:13.052 --> 00:13:20.101
So no one would say outright
whether they liked it or not.

00:13:20.518 --> 00:13:22.895
Everyone lived
their own little life.

00:14:05.271 --> 00:14:09.108
In time I began to understand
what was really going on.

00:14:11.152 --> 00:14:13.070
The military censored the media

00:14:13.946 --> 00:14:17.616
and tortured, killed, and exiled people

00:14:17.783 --> 00:14:19.493
they said were communists.

00:14:26.542 --> 00:14:29.253
Roger was already a professor
at the School of Architecture

00:14:29.420 --> 00:14:30.546
when I started there.

00:14:31.505 --> 00:14:36.677
It was a very intense
political climate.

00:14:39.346 --> 00:14:42.266
Officers who had
studied at our college,

00:14:42.433 --> 00:14:44.226
our former students,

00:14:44.435 --> 00:14:47.313
led the intervention
at the school.

00:14:48.481 --> 00:14:51.233
They would go into colleges
and arrest professors.

00:14:52.568 --> 00:14:54.278
I was blacklisted

00:14:55.946 --> 00:14:58.115
expelled from the university,
forbidden to lecture.

00:14:58.365 --> 00:14:59.408
Everybody knows this.

00:14:59.700 --> 00:15:02.036
You want to know how it was?
It was awful.

00:15:06.207 --> 00:15:10.002
What was my father’s position
on the dictatorship?

00:15:10.461 --> 00:15:15.090
Oh no, he didn’t
take a position, left or right.

00:15:15.633 --> 00:15:19.386
He went on with his career

00:15:20.387 --> 00:15:23.724
without involving
himself in politics.

00:15:26.185 --> 00:15:29.396
Dad,
the more I learn about you,

00:15:29.563 --> 00:15:32.107
the less I know you.

00:15:42.493 --> 00:15:45.829
As a child,
I often passed by the Pele De Vidro,

00:15:46.247 --> 00:15:47.748
but I never went inside.

00:15:49.333 --> 00:15:50.459
Now I come here

00:15:50.626 --> 00:15:53.963
hoping to meet the people
who have made this place their home.

00:15:55.923 --> 00:15:57.424
But I can't get in.

00:15:58.342 --> 00:16:01.220
I need the approval
of the occupation leaders.

00:16:03.806 --> 00:16:08.102
Let’s talk
and see if it’s possible.

00:16:08.811 --> 00:16:12.856
We’ll talk. Set up
a time for us to discuss it.

00:16:13.899 --> 00:16:15.025
So I wait,

00:16:15.901 --> 00:16:17.820
looking in from outside.

00:16:21.073 --> 00:16:22.283
I’m so curious

00:16:22.408 --> 00:16:25.202
about the lives
within my father’s creation.

00:16:27.413 --> 00:16:29.748
People were at the heart of his work.

00:16:34.587 --> 00:16:38.674
He designed the Pele de Vidro
with great care for the life inside.

00:16:41.051 --> 00:16:44.138
At a time when most offices
were dark and closed,

00:16:45.097 --> 00:16:48.434
he created a space
of light and transparency,

00:16:49.602 --> 00:16:52.146
a structure open
to the world around it.

00:17:07.786 --> 00:17:12.249
This is the only photo I ever found
of my father at the Pele de Vidro.

00:17:15.336 --> 00:17:20.215
Standing on the rooftop,
about to transform the skyline of São Paulo.

00:17:28.682 --> 00:17:32.269
We were proud to work
in such a beautiful place.

00:17:32.645 --> 00:17:35.814
In my opinion,
at that time in São Paulo

00:17:36.148 --> 00:17:38.400
no other building
was as modern.

00:17:39.652 --> 00:17:44.114
The entrance was marble
and stainless steel.

00:17:46.200 --> 00:17:50.537
The elevators
looked like ones from today.

00:17:50.913 --> 00:17:53.582
I had never seen any
like that here in São Paulo.

00:17:57.628 --> 00:18:01.715
In the 1960s,
there was still a belief

00:18:01.924 --> 00:18:05.219
that design could build
a better city and society.

00:18:06.220 --> 00:18:07.304
This illusion

00:18:07.638 --> 00:18:09.181
was shattered by

00:18:09.306 --> 00:18:11.684
how the country
actually developed in the 60s

00:18:11.767 --> 00:18:15.521
during the military coup
and dictatorship.

00:18:15.646 --> 00:18:18.190
There was economic growth

00:18:18.524 --> 00:18:23.862
alongside a worsening of the
gap between rich and poor

00:18:24.238 --> 00:18:28.033
and the housing shortage
grew much worse.

00:18:29.284 --> 00:18:33.872
Around 1973,
in the accounting department

00:18:34.415 --> 00:18:36.458
we started to realize

00:18:37.376 --> 00:18:40.462
something was wrong

00:18:41.630 --> 00:18:43.340
causing losses.

00:18:46.135 --> 00:18:51.056
The military started persecuting

00:18:51.306 --> 00:18:53.267
the Paes de Almeida family.

00:18:54.143 --> 00:18:56.478
The company went bankrupt

00:18:57.521 --> 00:19:01.734
and had to hand over
the building to the creditor

00:19:01.984 --> 00:19:05.404
which was a state bank.

00:19:07.781 --> 00:19:10.909
Then the government
took over the building.

00:19:27.217 --> 00:19:29.762
One drawing that enchanted
me was the staircase

00:19:29.928 --> 00:19:32.723
from the Wilton Paes
de Almeida building.

00:19:33.974 --> 00:19:37.811
It really surprised me.
It’s uniquely beautiful.

00:19:39.438 --> 00:19:42.733
I love looking at it
and showing it to visitors.

00:19:44.568 --> 00:19:47.488
Whenever I look at this I
wonder how it would have been

00:19:47.613 --> 00:19:50.532
to see this building
when it was new.

00:19:56.538 --> 00:19:58.832
Considering the length
of his career

00:19:59.458 --> 00:20:02.169
we couldn’t imagine him
exceeding 100 projects

00:20:02.628 --> 00:20:04.254
but now we know

00:20:04.671 --> 00:20:07.549
there were around 250.

00:20:18.519 --> 00:20:22.606
Dad, your drawings
take me back to my childhood.

00:20:25.442 --> 00:20:28.946
I loved when
you took me to your studio.

00:20:30.489 --> 00:20:33.408
It was my playground.

00:20:34.535 --> 00:20:38.163
Your models
were my dollhouses.

00:20:41.708 --> 00:20:43.877
Watching you draw

00:20:45.295 --> 00:20:47.214
the stillness of your face

00:20:48.966 --> 00:20:51.260
the sound of your pencil

00:20:52.845 --> 00:20:56.139
your sketches
were magic to me.

00:21:35.220 --> 00:21:37.639
It’s the one at the corner, right?

00:21:42.477 --> 00:21:44.771
Gal was one of my father’s students.

00:21:46.565 --> 00:21:51.069
Together, we go around São Paulo
visiting the buildings my father designed.

00:22:35.906 --> 00:22:39.826
And finally, the house my father
built for our family.

00:22:40.911 --> 00:22:44.456
It feels so strange that it’s
now someone else’s home.

00:22:51.546 --> 00:22:54.508
This garden, so full of memories.

00:22:56.093 --> 00:22:58.136
Running in circles with my brother,

00:22:59.846 --> 00:23:02.516
summer dinners
with neighbors and friends.

00:23:05.477 --> 00:23:08.522
But there are shadows here
of harder times.

00:23:15.612 --> 00:23:16.738
When I was 11

00:23:16.905 --> 00:23:20.784
I began to sense a growing
tension between my parents.

00:23:25.372 --> 00:23:30.085
Some nights, lying in bed,
I could hear my mother crying.

00:23:36.550 --> 00:23:40.721
And then one day,
my father left.

00:23:50.605 --> 00:23:53.734
It was such
a confusing time, Dad.

00:23:59.531 --> 00:24:03.618
Your new home
slowly became familiar

00:24:04.286 --> 00:24:08.165
and in a way
I had you more to myself

00:24:11.001 --> 00:24:14.796
until that woman
and her son moved in

00:24:16.548 --> 00:24:19.051
and everything changed again.

00:24:25.766 --> 00:24:30.520
Then one day there was a fight
between her son and me.

00:24:33.690 --> 00:24:35.442
A child’s fight

00:24:37.861 --> 00:24:40.030
but you took his side.

00:24:47.329 --> 00:24:49.456
You demanded I apologize

00:24:50.123 --> 00:24:53.418
or never come back
to your home.

00:24:57.756 --> 00:25:00.050
And I never did.

00:25:20.654 --> 00:25:22.697
I’ve been waiting six weeks.

00:25:24.241 --> 00:25:25.700
The occupation leaders

00:25:25.826 --> 00:25:29.621
say they're asking the residents
for permission to let me in.

00:25:31.665 --> 00:25:34.084
But then,
they stop returning my calls.

00:25:39.756 --> 00:25:43.385
Watching the people,
I begin to recognize faces

00:25:43.593 --> 00:25:45.595
and feel the rhythms of their lives.

00:25:49.641 --> 00:25:52.352
We are separated by
distance and privilege,

00:25:53.770 --> 00:25:55.605
yet, in a strange way,

00:25:56.189 --> 00:25:58.150
bound together by what we share,

00:25:59.359 --> 00:26:01.403
a home made by my father.

00:26:06.825 --> 00:26:12.539
Our biggest challenge
in São Paulo is housing.

00:26:14.875 --> 00:26:16.501
In São Paulo alone

00:26:16.877 --> 00:26:20.088
380,000 families
have nowhere to live.

00:26:22.215 --> 00:26:23.592
And at the same time

00:26:23.717 --> 00:26:25.552
a huge number of properties

00:26:25.760 --> 00:26:28.638
are empty or underused.

00:26:30.015 --> 00:26:31.099
The Pele de Vidro

00:26:31.266 --> 00:26:34.060
is one of over 70 buildings downtown

00:26:34.311 --> 00:26:36.688
occupied by people who need homes.

00:26:37.898 --> 00:26:40.942
The housing crisis
has sparked a movement.

00:26:52.579 --> 00:26:54.623
Calm down!

00:26:55.999 --> 00:26:57.876
Get inside!

00:27:00.170 --> 00:27:04.633
People think homeless activists
are thugs. We aren’t.

00:27:06.176 --> 00:27:09.846
We occupy properties
out of necessity.

00:27:10.639 --> 00:27:15.101
I am not
in the movement for profit.

00:27:15.393 --> 00:27:18.730
My goal is to help
a worker who can’t afford rent.

00:27:18.897 --> 00:27:22.108
Either he pays rent or he eats.
He can’t do both.

00:27:25.278 --> 00:27:28.198
From a strictly legal
point of view,

00:27:28.365 --> 00:27:30.200
occupation is not justifiable.

00:27:31.993 --> 00:27:33.536
But generally, these groups

00:27:33.745 --> 00:27:37.624
are fighting for constitutional rights.

00:27:38.917 --> 00:27:40.335
The struggle is real!

00:27:40.835 --> 00:27:44.089
Housing is a right
in the Brazilian Constitution.

00:27:45.173 --> 00:27:47.550
The Constitution also says

00:27:48.009 --> 00:27:51.805
that properties
must serve a social function.

00:27:51.972 --> 00:27:54.224
They have to be of some use.

00:27:54.557 --> 00:27:55.767
We occupy a building

00:27:55.934 --> 00:27:57.894
because
it has no social function.

00:28:04.567 --> 00:28:05.568
In our occupations

00:28:05.944 --> 00:28:11.366
we hire professionals
for the plumbing and electrical

00:28:11.992 --> 00:28:13.910
because those
have to be done right.

00:28:14.744 --> 00:28:16.913
We can’t have
just anyone do those.

00:28:20.041 --> 00:28:22.210
An occupation
isn’t just a structure.

00:28:23.545 --> 00:28:25.338
It’s the life we create here

00:28:26.214 --> 00:28:28.258
the sense of belonging

00:28:28.466 --> 00:28:30.343
the things we build.

00:28:31.803 --> 00:28:33.388
In an occupation

00:28:35.098 --> 00:28:38.101
you create
emotional bonds of solidarity.

00:28:38.727 --> 00:28:43.106
You learn from an early age
to be more democratic.

00:28:44.232 --> 00:28:49.779
My work with Péricles is
to manage occupied buildings.

00:28:52.282 --> 00:28:54.200
A while back, around 2013

00:28:54.284 --> 00:28:57.078
our group was going to occupy
the glass building.

00:28:57.912 --> 00:28:59.998
But it wasn’t fit for habitation.

00:29:00.498 --> 00:29:02.625
Then, later,
this other group went in

00:29:03.168 --> 00:29:05.003
whose name I don’t recognize.

00:29:06.046 --> 00:29:08.173
That group isn’t part
of the movement.

00:29:08.631 --> 00:29:12.635
They aren’t recognized
as community leaders.

00:29:17.349 --> 00:29:21.353
Fundamentally,
the goal of architecture

00:29:21.936 --> 00:29:24.773
is to protect against
the unpredictability of life.

00:29:25.065 --> 00:29:27.192
So if there’s
a housing shortage

00:29:27.359 --> 00:29:28.818
and people can move in there

00:29:29.527 --> 00:29:31.071
I think that’s a good thing.

00:29:33.156 --> 00:29:37.535
No one should spend the rest
of their life in a building

00:29:37.744 --> 00:29:41.915
that does not have safe
electrical wiring or plumbing

00:29:42.040 --> 00:29:44.250
where the gas
might explode at any moment.

00:29:49.130 --> 00:29:52.300
Occupation as
a form of protest

00:29:52.717 --> 00:29:55.428
is justified and understandable

00:29:55.595 --> 00:29:58.056
but in this building

00:29:58.306 --> 00:30:02.352
you’re risking the safety
of hundreds of people.

00:30:04.270 --> 00:30:06.272
There are no easy solutions.

00:30:09.526 --> 00:30:14.614
Roger left behind
an intriguing legacy.

00:30:17.075 --> 00:30:20.995
It has endured time,
social changes,

00:30:21.246 --> 00:30:23.748
and all these circumstances.

00:30:26.418 --> 00:30:28.586
It has a certain integrity.

00:30:29.003 --> 00:30:30.380
It’s still here.

00:30:46.020 --> 00:30:50.316
Roger was a really nice guy

00:30:51.484 --> 00:30:55.196
but he had
a kind of tension inside.

00:30:55.530 --> 00:30:58.867
I sometimes felt
Roger’s anxiety.

00:31:02.245 --> 00:31:04.456
So when he died
of a heart attack,

00:31:04.622 --> 00:31:07.375
it was not
a complete surprise.

00:31:20.054 --> 00:31:21.890
He was so young.

00:31:26.936 --> 00:31:29.689
It was very sad for you.

00:31:30.732 --> 00:31:36.154
I saw that you were hurt,
very hurt.

00:31:40.033 --> 00:31:41.659
How old were you?

00:31:42.118 --> 00:31:43.161
14.

00:31:43.411 --> 00:31:45.747
Yes, 14.
That’s right.

00:31:49.876 --> 00:31:53.171
At my father's funeral,
I felt like a stranger.

00:31:55.798 --> 00:31:59.677
Our angry last words
still stinging my heart.

00:32:02.722 --> 00:32:06.434
Even with Yara there,
I felt totally alone.

00:32:25.912 --> 00:32:28.081
A few years after my father died,

00:32:28.540 --> 00:32:31.960
the federal police made the
Pele de Vidro their headquarters,

00:32:33.962 --> 00:32:37.507
a place for censoring
journalists and artists.

00:32:40.718 --> 00:32:43.721
My father’s creation
of openness and light

00:32:44.013 --> 00:32:46.724
became a center of
fear and surveillance.

00:32:50.395 --> 00:32:52.480
But the dictatorship was faltering.

00:32:54.065 --> 00:32:57.652
People across the country
were demanding free elections.

00:33:05.451 --> 00:33:07.287
After two decades of struggle,

00:33:07.745 --> 00:33:09.706
democracy was restored.

00:33:14.085 --> 00:33:17.338
The federal police
left the building in 2003,

00:33:20.174 --> 00:33:21.217
and for years,

00:33:21.551 --> 00:33:25.138
the Pele de Vidro
stood empty and neglected.

00:33:29.100 --> 00:33:30.602
It’s a shame, isn’t it?

00:33:31.603 --> 00:33:33.605
A building
that’s been landmarked

00:33:33.813 --> 00:33:37.275
supposedly protected
as a heritage site

00:33:37.775 --> 00:33:40.987
and we allowed it
to fall into that state.

00:33:42.780 --> 00:33:45.992
And there’s no point blaming
the owner of the building.

00:33:46.993 --> 00:33:50.121
The owner of the building is us.

00:34:03.092 --> 00:34:05.928
We don’t accept a city

00:34:06.346 --> 00:34:11.309
that kicks the workers and
the poor out of downtown.

00:34:12.977 --> 00:34:14.646
That’s why several

00:34:14.771 --> 00:34:17.315
abandoned buildings
downtown are occupied.

00:34:18.983 --> 00:34:21.611
Families are struggling,
not just for housing

00:34:22.403 --> 00:34:28.326
but also for workers
to have shorter commutes.

00:34:28.660 --> 00:34:32.830
Buildings like the one
your father built

00:34:33.164 --> 00:34:34.874
should not stay abandoned.

00:34:35.458 --> 00:34:39.420
I believe he’d like
homeless families

00:34:39.587 --> 00:34:42.590
to have suitable housing there.

00:34:50.056 --> 00:34:52.100
It would break my father’s heart

00:34:52.392 --> 00:34:54.602
to see his Pele de Vidro like this,

00:34:56.396 --> 00:34:57.605
as it does mine.

00:35:00.608 --> 00:35:03.319
But I see this place
has become a shelter,

00:35:04.070 --> 00:35:06.322
its walls protecting so many.

00:35:07.990 --> 00:35:09.701
And this touches my heart.

00:35:29.971 --> 00:35:32.515
We set up a meeting
with those leaders

00:35:32.765 --> 00:35:34.726
to try and arrange
for you to film.

00:35:35.101 --> 00:35:36.394
They said no.

00:35:37.228 --> 00:35:39.313
I think they’re missing
a big opportunity

00:35:39.647 --> 00:35:41.524
because I believe
the movement has to be open.

00:35:42.525 --> 00:35:43.985
Why hide anything?

00:35:45.528 --> 00:35:47.405
The door is closed.

00:35:49.782 --> 00:35:51.492
But I am not giving up.

00:35:53.995 --> 00:35:56.205
I go to my father’s birthplace,

00:35:56.497 --> 00:35:58.249
the city he would visit often.

00:36:01.294 --> 00:36:03.296
I’m here to meet an architect

00:36:03.504 --> 00:36:05.840
with a deep connection
to the Pele de Vidro.

00:36:07.717 --> 00:36:11.345
The first time
I went inside the building

00:36:14.098 --> 00:36:15.308
was thrilling.

00:36:23.274 --> 00:36:26.319
It was love at first sight.

00:36:27.820 --> 00:36:30.156
A masterpiece of architecture.

00:36:30.615 --> 00:36:33.826
You know immediately

00:36:33.910 --> 00:36:35.912
when you find work of this quality.

00:36:38.706 --> 00:36:41.751
That’s when we had the dream

00:36:42.084 --> 00:36:43.920
of creating a cultural laboratory

00:36:44.170 --> 00:36:46.297
in this abandoned building.

00:36:50.760 --> 00:36:52.470
Everyone wanted
to invest in the project

00:36:52.637 --> 00:36:54.764
to come participate
in this dream.

00:37:00.186 --> 00:37:01.479
In November of 2008

00:37:01.604 --> 00:37:04.690
there was the
global economic crisis.

00:37:05.441 --> 00:37:09.612
The funding pledges
we had for the project

00:37:09.946 --> 00:37:11.948
were canceled,
one after another.

00:37:13.825 --> 00:37:16.035
Pablo’s dream came to an end,

00:37:17.870 --> 00:37:19.121
But a few years later,

00:37:19.372 --> 00:37:22.625
the Skin of Glass
became a canvas for another vision,

00:37:23.417 --> 00:37:26.671
a radical street art called pixação.

00:37:27.797 --> 00:37:32.134
Pixação is a big part of the
culture where I grew up

00:37:35.429 --> 00:37:39.517
which was kind of
a violent, rough place.

00:37:43.271 --> 00:37:45.022
It's a dangerous thing.

00:37:48.359 --> 00:37:51.487
That night we got inside the building.

00:37:56.117 --> 00:37:59.787
I climbed outside, stretched out
and painted the star.

00:38:02.540 --> 00:38:07.795
And then we started
working our way down.

00:38:16.596 --> 00:38:23.895
OPUS 666 is a critique
of the corrupt system

00:38:25.271 --> 00:38:29.233
and the glass building
was the ultimate showcase.

00:38:40.369 --> 00:38:42.997
A few months after Rafael’s pixação,

00:38:43.331 --> 00:38:46.959
people occupied the
Pele de Vidro for the first time.

00:38:51.839 --> 00:38:54.800
A local filmmaker
documented them moving in.

00:38:59.931 --> 00:39:04.560
All this time I imagined if
I could only get into the Pele de Vidro,

00:39:05.186 --> 00:39:06.938
I would find my father there.

00:39:13.110 --> 00:39:16.697
But I am grateful
to see this glimpse of life inside.

00:39:23.412 --> 00:39:25.414
I sympathize with these people

00:39:25.748 --> 00:39:29.710
and I feel conflicted
about the situation.

00:39:31.170 --> 00:39:33.005
It’s right for people to occupy

00:39:33.005 --> 00:39:35.257
to have a home to live in,
and raise their children.

00:39:35.424 --> 00:39:40.721
Preserving and restoring
an architectural masterpiece

00:39:40.888 --> 00:39:42.723
even if it’s left empty

00:39:42.807 --> 00:39:43.683
is also right.

00:39:44.058 --> 00:39:47.979
But it’s right against right,
wrong against wrong.

00:39:49.814 --> 00:39:51.816
This building tells the story

00:39:51.899 --> 00:39:55.736
of what happened and is
happening in the world today.

00:41:03.971 --> 00:41:05.681
I told you to get back!

00:41:07.016 --> 00:41:08.934
Get back!

00:41:52.561 --> 00:41:53.687
Dad,

00:41:54.522 --> 00:41:58.734
your creation of hope
and optimism is gone.

00:42:01.654 --> 00:42:08.494
At least seven people died.
Many others are missing.

00:42:15.918 --> 00:42:18.963
The survivors
are cast to the wind

00:42:20.965 --> 00:42:24.218
their fragile dreams
turned to ash.

00:42:31.433 --> 00:42:35.771
I am losing you all over again.

00:42:46.740 --> 00:42:51.287
Our friends are buried in there.

00:42:55.040 --> 00:42:57.126
And we, the survivors

00:42:57.334 --> 00:43:00.838
are like a phoenix
reborn from the ashes.

00:43:05.259 --> 00:43:07.303
We rose from the ashes.

00:43:09.305 --> 00:43:10.973
Every tear that fell here

00:43:12.099 --> 00:43:15.019
was of sorrow but
there’s also joy in being alive.

00:43:19.190 --> 00:43:22.234
MISSING

00:43:30.201 --> 00:43:33.662
How do you feel
about the fire?

00:43:33.829 --> 00:43:37.833
It’s hard.
It hasn’t sunk in yet.

00:43:38.876 --> 00:43:40.794
I’m still all...

00:43:41.503 --> 00:43:43.380
It hasn’t sunk in.

00:43:45.007 --> 00:43:46.467
It’s such a shock.

00:43:47.009 --> 00:43:48.260
For everyone.

00:43:48.510 --> 00:43:50.137
It’s really hard.

00:43:50.346 --> 00:43:54.516
The biggest problem now is
where will we live?

00:43:56.268 --> 00:43:59.647
I wanted to talk to you

00:43:59.813 --> 00:44:02.149
because my father
designed that building.

00:44:03.400 --> 00:44:05.069
Seriously?

00:44:07.279 --> 00:44:10.532
My God, what a surprise!

00:44:11.575 --> 00:44:12.952
Wow.

00:44:15.412 --> 00:44:17.581
Inside was cozy and nice.

00:44:17.873 --> 00:44:23.087
Outside looked creepy with
pixação and missing windows.

00:44:23.337 --> 00:44:27.049
It looked strange, but to me
it was a wonderful place.

00:44:29.093 --> 00:44:32.554
Before, I was
unemployed and broke.

00:44:32.846 --> 00:44:35.307
I ended up on the street
for five years.

00:44:36.058 --> 00:44:38.352
They spray water on you,
take your clothes.

00:44:38.560 --> 00:44:40.479
They even
take your documents.

00:44:41.188 --> 00:44:44.525
We want life.
We are humans, not dogs.

00:44:44.692 --> 00:44:46.402
And I don’t treat
my dog badly, either.

00:44:46.527 --> 00:44:48.487
I treat him well,
I hope that’s clear.

00:45:00.291 --> 00:45:01.292
The governor,

00:45:02.251 --> 00:45:03.252
the mayor,

00:45:03.836 --> 00:45:06.755
even the president
appear for the cameras.

00:45:08.590 --> 00:45:11.010
But none of them meet
with the survivors

00:45:11.176 --> 00:45:12.678
just one block away.

00:45:19.893 --> 00:45:21.854
Here in downtown São Paulo

00:45:22.313 --> 00:45:25.566
we feel a shadow looming

00:45:25.983 --> 00:45:30.154
a danger
that a wave of evictions

00:45:30.362 --> 00:45:32.489
could be triggered
by this tragedy.

00:45:33.324 --> 00:45:35.951
We demand a housing solution

00:45:36.118 --> 00:45:39.997
for everyone, now!

00:45:44.793 --> 00:45:46.795
It’s really important
to tell you the reality.

00:45:47.338 --> 00:45:50.174
It would take –
and this is important –

00:45:50.466 --> 00:45:55.012
more than 100 years to
address the city housing deficit.

00:46:02.269 --> 00:46:08.359
Dad, this journey is so much
bigger than you and me.

00:46:11.487 --> 00:46:13.322
I came searching for you

00:46:13.614 --> 00:46:17.576
and found a Brazil
I was taught to ignore.

00:46:27.544 --> 00:46:29.088
Do you want to see a photo?

00:46:30.839 --> 00:46:33.008
Look how the
building used to be.

00:46:35.427 --> 00:46:36.595
Let me see.

00:46:37.763 --> 00:46:39.431
This is the building before.

00:46:39.807 --> 00:46:41.100
It was pretty.

00:46:41.225 --> 00:46:42.976
Wow, it doesn’t even
seem like it.

00:46:43.519 --> 00:46:45.270
Look how people used to be.

00:46:46.105 --> 00:46:47.606
Look at Paissandu Square.

00:46:48.899 --> 00:46:50.901
It was so posh.

00:46:51.735 --> 00:46:54.696
Then you all showed up
and it became like this!

00:46:55.864 --> 00:46:57.324
666!

00:46:59.159 --> 00:47:00.536
Remember these stairs?

00:47:00.869 --> 00:47:03.163
Wow! Look how
the stairs used to be!

00:47:03.414 --> 00:47:05.416
- Wow, so beautiful.
- Which stairs?

00:47:05.582 --> 00:47:06.750
In the building.

00:47:07.668 --> 00:47:09.670
She’s the daughter
of the guy who designed it.

00:47:10.712 --> 00:47:12.714
I saw her on TV.

00:47:14.007 --> 00:47:16.635
Chill, people, you gonna steal
the woman’s phone now?

00:47:18.971 --> 00:47:20.347
Wow.

00:47:21.348 --> 00:47:23.684
Those stairs saved our lives.

00:47:26.353 --> 00:47:28.814
Either go down the steps
or die.

00:47:30.315 --> 00:47:33.360
Your father made the building.
So cool.

00:47:33.986 --> 00:47:36.071
And you wanted
to make a documentary

00:47:36.238 --> 00:47:38.907
when it was occupied,
but there wasn't time.

00:47:39.783 --> 00:47:42.077
The coordinators didn’t let me.

00:47:42.244 --> 00:47:44.788
But now you’re here,
talking to us!

00:47:46.415 --> 00:47:48.459
I wish I could have
met your father.

00:47:49.418 --> 00:47:51.503
Why aren’t the
building coordinators here?

00:47:51.712 --> 00:47:52.713
Fear.

00:47:52.921 --> 00:47:53.755
Fear of what?

00:47:53.881 --> 00:47:55.466
Let’s put it this way.

00:47:55.757 --> 00:47:58.760
It’s 80% their fault
that we’re here today.

00:47:59.303 --> 00:48:01.096
It’s because of them.

00:48:02.681 --> 00:48:04.433
They spent more at the beauty salon

00:48:04.516 --> 00:48:06.602
on cars and beach trips

00:48:06.768 --> 00:48:08.312
than they did on fire extinguishers.

00:48:09.980 --> 00:48:13.192
If we’d had what the fire department
wanted us to get

00:48:13.817 --> 00:48:15.944
the building would still be standing.

00:48:18.614 --> 00:48:20.032
That night

00:48:20.365 --> 00:48:22.951
the lobby was full of people
trying to get out

00:48:23.160 --> 00:48:25.412
and the gate was locked.

00:48:26.663 --> 00:48:29.875
One guy quickly noticed
the gate was locked

00:48:30.375 --> 00:48:33.587
and nobody knew
who had the key.

00:48:34.046 --> 00:48:37.424
So he picked up a piece of
wood and broke the glass

00:48:37.799 --> 00:48:40.469
and we got out
through the glass.

00:48:46.517 --> 00:48:48.060
You can already tell
it’s missing.

00:48:49.186 --> 00:48:50.979
- It was visible from here.
- Yeah.

00:48:56.193 --> 00:48:57.861
That’s a big void.

00:49:12.417 --> 00:49:16.964
I can’t wrap my head around it.
To me, it’s still there.

00:49:38.318 --> 00:49:42.614
Pablo and Philippe have come
from France to honor my father‘s dream,

00:49:43.657 --> 00:49:44.658
and their own.

00:49:57.588 --> 00:49:59.923
Coming back to redo
this drawing together,

00:50:00.090 --> 00:50:01.550
10 years later

00:50:02.759 --> 00:50:05.178
Pablo and I

00:50:05.345 --> 00:50:07.848
didn’t expect it
to be this intense.

00:50:09.558 --> 00:50:13.061
It’s this feeling of love and freedom
the building gave us

00:50:13.228 --> 00:50:15.981
and the powerful tragedy
of this story.

00:50:20.694 --> 00:50:22.696
The first design was a project

00:50:23.989 --> 00:50:26.783
and this design is a requiem

00:50:29.620 --> 00:50:31.496
to the building itself

00:50:31.747 --> 00:50:33.373
to its architect

00:50:35.208 --> 00:50:39.046
to the people
who died in that awful fire

00:50:41.506 --> 00:50:44.468
and maybe also

00:50:46.094 --> 00:50:49.348
to the dream
we had back then

00:50:49.890 --> 00:50:52.726
that we keep alive today.

00:51:10.035 --> 00:51:12.704
One year later,
our lives have changed.

00:51:14.539 --> 00:51:17.793
Today my daughter, Rafaela,

00:51:17.959 --> 00:51:20.337
was born after
seven months of pregnancy.

00:51:21.755 --> 00:51:23.548
Cover her up.

00:51:29.680 --> 00:51:31.056
This is so awesome.

00:51:32.265 --> 00:51:33.725
Can I carry her up the stairs?

00:51:35.394 --> 00:51:37.854
I don’t get to carry her at all!

00:51:38.772 --> 00:51:40.232
It’s my turn now!

00:51:41.566 --> 00:51:44.236
I can’t get no respect!

00:51:46.029 --> 00:51:50.450
Rafaela, welcome
to your humble home.

00:51:58.291 --> 00:52:01.795
Let’s have a conversation,
just the two of us.

00:52:33.118 --> 00:52:34.578
Dear Dad

00:52:37.372 --> 00:52:41.126
I came home, hoping
to fill an emptiness within me.

00:52:42.502 --> 00:52:45.797
And I found you everywhere

00:52:47.841 --> 00:52:49.843
in the work you created

00:52:51.052 --> 00:52:53.138
in the people you touched.

00:52:54.222 --> 00:52:57.642
Finally, I feel I understand you.

00:52:58.351 --> 00:53:00.812
My heart is full.

00:53:06.109 --> 00:53:07.986
And your Pele de Vidro

00:53:08.445 --> 00:53:10.781
the great mirror of Brazil

00:53:11.239 --> 00:53:12.741
even in its absence

00:53:13.033 --> 00:53:16.203
calls on us
to dream a new future

00:53:17.537 --> 00:53:22.375
a future that includes us all.