I want to make movies that challenge your understanding of the world. I'm writing the first one right now. With storytelling, my biggest goal is to explore some of the many myths surrounding human behavior and human society that have been covertly plaguing our civilization for millennia, but doing so very subtly, underneath a rich, cinematic experience. Son of a hippie and a punk, who themselves had a way with telling stories that got passed onto me through enthusiastic bedtime tales; descending from Spaniards who escaped the Spanish revolution and ended up enslaved in Brazil; I grew up in near-extreme poverty, with no electricity or cooking gas, in a small crime-riddled tourist town in the southeast of Brazil, deprived of resources and opportunities, and wasn't able to get even near a camera until the age of 16. From age 7 to age 12, I traveled half the Brazilian coast with my mom, one city at a time, always collecting and telling stories along the way, met intriguing characters, experienced a variety of unusual things, and learned important values I hold dear to this day. Ever since my mom managed to buy an old TV and we got to watch films from public channels, I've been fascinated with film and with the process of making films, sometimes reading and watching more making ofs/behind-the-scenes than the movies themselves. I've always been very good at learning from watching and learning really fast, so I absorbed quite a lot. But it wasn't until the age of 14, after working as a tattoo artist in the summer and saving some money, that I managed to buy a crappy old 128 MB RAM computer — that didn't even turn on for a whole year —, got a free 3D graphics software (Blender) that could run on it, through a friend, got access to dial-up internet, and began studying the hell out of filmmaking, on my own, in what would ultimately turn into my life's commitment of becoming a director and writer, after feeling strongly that I had stories and perspectives I needed to get off my chest and share with the world and realizing that film was the only way I could properly communicate them. more...