Rogério Sganzerla
1946 - 2004Influenced by Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, and José Mojica Marins, Sganzerla often used clichés from film noir and pornochanchadas. Irony, narrative subversion and collage were trademarks of his film aesthetics.
Sganzerla was born in Joaçaba, in the state of Santa Catarina, but moved with his family to São Paulo at a very young age, living there for most of his life. During the 1960s he wrote for the newspaper "O Estado de S. Paulo" ("The State of S. Paulo") as film critic, quickly being recognised as a young talent.
In 1967, Sganzerla directed his first short film, "Documentário" ("Documentary"), winning an award at the JB-Mesbla 16mm Festival. "Documentário" was quickly followed up by his first feature-length film in 1968, "O Bandido da Luz Vermelha" ("The Red Light Bandit"), which became a landmark for the movement known as Cinema de Invenção or Cinema Marginal and is still Sganzerla's most well-known film.
In 1970, he founded the "Bel-Air Filmes" production company along with fellow Cinema de Invenção filmmaker Júlio Bressane. Headed by Sganzerla, the company produced his films "Copacabana Mon Amour", "Carnaval na Lama" and "Sem Essa, Aranha" and Bressane's "A Família do Barulho", "Barão Olavo, o Horrível" and "Cuidado, Madame", all shot in Brazil during four months of 1970 and edited abroad, in England, when both Sganzerla and Bressane were banished from their home country by the then rulling military dictatorship. While in exile, both Sganzerla and Bressane continued to shoot new films.
Sganzerla's personal obsessions, such as director Orson Welles (and his infamous visit to Brazil) and musicians Noel Rosa and Jimi Hendrix, appear in many of his films, going as far as being the main subject in some of them. In 1985, Sganzerla directed the docufiction "Nem Tudo É Verdade" ("It's Not All True") about Orson Welles' arrival in Brazil to film his unfinished documentary "It's All True".
Sganzerla died in 2004, of a brain tumor, shortly after finishing his last film "O Signo do Caos" ("The Sign of Chaos").
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O Bom Cinema
Eugênio Puppo
Carlos Reichenbach, Rogério Sganzerla
An authentically marginal cinema created in Catholic university in Brazil. One of the most intriguing and imaginative moments in modern cinema in the voice of some of its select conspirators—with Carlos Reichenbach at the lead—, and through the most razing flow of images that can possibly be conceived.
The Good Cinema
Glauber Rocha - The Movie, Brazil's Labyrinth
Silvio Tendler
Glauber Rocha, Orlando Senna
Documentary about Brazilian filmmaker Glauber Rocha, one of the most important names in the Cinema Novo, with interviews with some of his friends and colleagues.
Glauber Rocha - The Movie, Brazil's Labyrinth
O Bandido da Luz Vermelha
Rogério Sganzerla
Paulo Villaça, Helena Ignez
Born and raised in the misery of Brazilian slums, Jorge becomes a luxury house burglar in São Paulo and gets nicknamed "The Red Light Bandit" by the sensationalist press. In addition to wearing a red flashlight, he talks to his hostages in an irreverent tone and makes bold breakthroughs to later spend the money extravagantly. His world is the decadent neighbourhood of Boca do Lixo.
The Red Light Bandit
O Galante Rei da Boca
Luís Alberto Rocha Melo, Alessandro Gamo
Carlos Reichenbach, Rogério Sganzerla
Documentary about the trajectory of Antônio Polo Galante, known as "The King of Boca". The film maps work and forms of production in Boca do Lixo, popular area in Luz neighborhood located downtown São Paulo, where usually night clubs and sexual services establishments were located.
O Galante Rei da Boca
O Signo do Caos
Rogério Sganzerla
Helena Ignez, Djin Sganzerla
A customs agent, Dr. Amnésio, examines some reels of film, a documentary Orson Welles made about Brazil, and tries to confiscate the material. Then, a party in which repression agents celebrate their victory against freedom and creativity.
O Signo do Caos
