Master: A Building in Copacabana

Over the course of seven days, a film crew headed by Coutinho captured everyday life in the Master, an apartment building a block away from the beach in Copacabana. This gargantuan edifice has a total of 276 studio apartments housing some five hundred people. The thirty-seven residents interviewed are gifted storytellers with colorful lives and personalities that belie the extremity of their cramped quarters. Each intimate and revealing story bears witness to the exceptional lives of ordinary people. —MoMA