Giving visibility to urban change in Rio de Janeiro through digital audio-visual culture: A Brazilian webdocumentary project and its circulation

This article discusses the crowdfunded Brazilian webdocumentary project Domínio Público (produced by the audio-visual collective Paêbirú Realizações Cultivadas), which portrays urban transformations in Rio de Janeiro in the run-up to the city’s hosting of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, with a particular focus on the impact in the city’s favelas. It argues that Domínio Público can be understood as a snapshot of a key moment in the recent history of Rio de Janeiro and of Brazil, which intertwines Rio’s urban transformations with digital audio-visual culture, fundamental for the circulation and visibility of these processes in Brazil and abroad, as well as with national political processes and crises which would go on to take unforeseen directions and proportions after the film’s release. The article shows how circulation and visibility were embedded in the project from the outset, and became an intrinsic part of its critical narrative on urban transformations.