Fordlândia is often presented online as a “ghost town” and as a utopian project by Henry Ford. Yet the Amazonian company town, founded in 1928, was never a utopia. Nor is it a ghost town; on the contrary, it is full of life. Here, the ghosts are active historical forces: Ford, capitalism, extractivism.
Following Fordlandia Malaise (2019), Susana de Sousa Dias returns to explore this well-known and much-discussed “ghost town”, “utopian city” or “mystical city”, founded by Henry Ford, where the ruins, archives and testimonies ‘speak’ once more. An evocation that reveals voices and new narratives, a film that showcases indigenous archaeological discoveries, awakening and questioning ghosts, and projecting the evils and virtues of this feminine land that overflows from the fabric of memory. Fordlandia Panacea activates a place, creating a universe that propels images and propagates sounds and voices that unravel threads of history which intersect, re-intersect and expand time. (Carlota Gonçalves)
