Developed for the 2010 São Paulo Biennial, Canoas is set in Casa das Canoas, overlooking the bay on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, which architect Oscar Niemeyer built in the early 1950s. Although it was a private residence, the place hosted cultural gatherings of the Brazilian and international elite. The film re-enacts a cocktail party with actors and non-actors at the residence where dancing and drinks punctuate conversations about modernity, public housing, political dictatorship and artistic exile — a situation that echoes the glamorous past of the house, set in the contemporary Brazilian cultural scene.