“This is not Disneyland. This is Cracolândia”. This sentence of a local resident was chosen by the director, Debora Diniz, to open the documentary Hotel Laide. Released right before a police operation against homeless people living at Cracolandia, this film registers the place from the perspective of its inhabitants. “The documentary creates identification and makes us see that we are also like those Cracolândia residents”, the director says. The documentary was filmed in two different moments — at the end of 2015 and November 2016 —, Hotel Laide follows the stories of three women whose destinies have simultaneously crossed the Cracolandia: Dona Laide, owner of the hotel; Brenda Bracho, a type of housekeeper of the place who had also lived in the streets before; and Angélica Alves, a young woman who has been living in the streets and struggling with crack addiction.
