I want to make movies that challenge your understanding of the world.
Writing the first one right now.
Since I was a kid, I always wanted to change the world, creating a healthier, more prosperous society with more freedom for all. But then I realized we can't change the world without first changing hearts and minds. And that's why I make movies.
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If I can explore some of the biggest issues surrounding human behaviour, issues that have been covertly plaguing our civilization for millennia, but doing so very subtly, underneath a rich cinematic experience, filled with ideas and feelings you've never thought about or felt before, I will be successful.
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A mixed-race kid of the 90s, and of a deeply impoverished drug-addicted hippie & punk hawker couple, who was left by one at age 3, who started life with no electricity and no cooking gas where mom cooked with alcohol in a tin can and the pan held by two bricks, had to sleep on the streets and lived in a 1-dollar-a-day brothel at age 10, who traveled half the Brazilian coast by age 12, a descendant of Indigenous Brazilians and Spanish slaves, who survived 15 years of domestic violence, 7+ years of health issues, medical negligence and abandonment, and 3 years of bullying, was class-discriminated, police-abused, who bought his first computer working as a henna tattoo artist under the scorching Sun on the beaches of Ilhabela at age 14 and, without a camera, began learning photography via an online photography simulator and acquired a world-class command of the English language using Google Translate on dial-up internet. If you looked at my picture and intro and thought "privileged white male", my first challenge to your understanding of the world is complete.
You're welcome. That projection couldn't be farther from the truth.
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Along that messy road, I managed to sneak in a few nice, positive things, though:
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1997 • Learned to surf at age 4 by watching surfers from shore and borrowing their surf boards, which led to being featured on the cover of a surf magazine;
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1998-2000 • Almost got a Yellow Belt in both Capoeira & Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at ages 5 and 7, respectively. The reasons why "almost" are mildly interesting;
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2005 • #1 student in a school-wide select top-students competition in 4th grade;
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2006 • #3 math student in the whole school in 5th grade (below only two high school students);
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2007 • Became the 2nd best beginner Optimist sailor in the State of São Paulo at age 14, scoring a few trophies and medals, and qualifying for the national championship (which I, unfortunately, could not participate because my mom couldn't pay for the trip), thanks to a public sailing school in Ilhabela. Not going to the national championship was very hurtful as sailing was really important to me;
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2006-2012 • Acted in over 12 plays, in 4 cities, 3 ballet dances, and got nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 2011's Mapa Cultural Paulista (State-wide competition);
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2011-now • Became a guitarist and songwriter in my spare time, first learning using a cheap acoustic guitar another hawker let me borrow for a month, then with a cheap electric guitar my mom gave me as a present at age 18, that I played by plugging into my computer using a P10 to P2 adapter, using free guitar amp simulators through my computer speakers, and learning songs via tablatures. I have not produced or released any of my songs yet;
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2019 • Top 15 on the global leader board of the Harvard CS50's Speller Challenge.
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There's more to my story, it is quite unusual and more painful than you can imagine, a story of endurance and beating the odds, but, at my core, I have always been and will always be an ever-curious learner of cinema, communication, human behaviour & the world; a natural storyteller, musician and problem-solver; a collaborator at heart; and a lover of the sea. Ultimately, a realist, with a healthy dose of optimism, who never gives up.
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