Rio is a cautionary tale, says documentarian Julien Temple

British filmmaker Julien Temple joins Jian to discuss his new documentary Rio 50 Degrees and the "gaps between truths" he uncovered while shooting in Brazil's second largest city. 

Like his documentaries Requiem for Detroit and London: The Modern Babylon, his latest film brings together new material and archival footage to create an impressionistic portrait of a city: in this case, Rio de Janeiro -- a place teeming with creativity and tension. 

In Rio 50 Degrees, residents narrate the story of their own city, and give their own definitions of what carioca -- a term that refers to Rio residents -- truly means. Temple gives equal weight to a wide range of voices: from Rio's well-heeled mayor, to cab drivers and homeless children. 

"You're not an objective person when you make a film. Every frame, you frame the whole world out and choose one aspect of where you are," he tells Jian. 

"I think it's important to try and achieve a personal honesty in what you film. I think there's a hundred million films to be made about Rio equally as valid as what I could come up with."

Rich Rio, Poor Rio

One thing that really stood out to the filmmaker was the "obscene" division of wealth between the city's rich and poor residents.  

"I think Rio is definitely a cautionary tale for the rest of the world," he said. "You don't want that to happen in Toronto, you don't want that to happen in London. And it is happening, and we should very frightened of it."