Soul of the Streets: the Virtual and the Real Flaneur in a Webdocumentary

João do Rio, writer and journalist, wanders through the streets of Rio de Janeiro in the early 20th century, observing the city, its human types. Such ethnographic observations give rise to his chronicles-reports, initially published in newspapers and later collected in the book A Alma Encantadora das Ruas, in 1908. The interactive webdoc Alma das Ruas has reinterpretations of the chronicles As Mariposas do Luxo, Pequenas Profissões and Visões D’Ópio, present in that book. It proposes a parallel between the walk in real life through the streets of Rio de Janeiro in the early 20th century, described in João do Rio's text, and the virtual walk of the interactor through the non-linear and interactive audiovisual narrative of the webdoc. The approach chosen is drawing, wich runs from the opening animation, through the interactive map of the city center, from where the virtual walk begins with links for reinterpretations and reaches the screen with the Extras. The work rescue the history of Rio de Janeiro, valuing it, aimed at people with a feeling of losing the cultural capital that it once was. The webdocumentary Alma das Ruas transports the interactor through the Belle Époque of Rio de Janeiro through the vision of its streets and, by knowing its past, makes him reflect on the current city.