Miratú Filmes

Ouro Preto, one of Brazil’s most historically significant cities and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was once known as Vila Rica. Its history is filled with stories and characters that have transcended generations through oral tradition, folk tales, and the stories passed down by its people. Through the accounts of several interviewees, the film tells the story of Antônio Francisco Alves, known as Vira-Saia, one of these figures who, even before Tiradentes and the Minas Conspiracy, had already challenged the Portuguese Crown and disrupted its plans for extracting gold and sending it to the capital of the Portuguese Empire.

On All That Is Solid Melts Into Air, we follow Carlos, a young mining employee who lives in the fictional district of Antônio Borba, in Mariana. Among exhaustive journeys and landscapes scarred by exploitation, he finds in his own camera a form of resistance. Recording daily life, Carlos turns observation into protests, unfolding the environmental and social impacts that go through his territory — now shattered by an atypical event: the privatization of breathable air. As he records, he witnesses the development of a pattern threatening not only the land, but life itself. All That Is Solid Melts Into Air comes up with a critical perspective on the lifestyles in mining cities, the exploitation of natural resources, and the resistance of those who dwell in these areas.