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In Production

SHOOTING BEGINS FOR NEW FILM

April - 2025

“Gaia’s New Era” is my next documentary film. We started shooting this month and will continue throughout the next months and maybe years. It’s about a new social experiment which begun as a dream and has the potential to change the way we see land conflict in Brazil – a country which did not manage to make its own land reform and still has huge amounts of land belonging to a few powerful people.

      

    

I have to thank Ana Cláudia Streva and Nós Production House, my new friends Aline Midlej, Rodrigo Cebrian, João Pacífico, Tuíra Tule and dear Fraiha Family; my old friends Miquéias Motta and Janice D’Ávila and our excellent team and field crew. And a special ‘thank you’ to Mrs. Gisa (in memoriam), for her beautiful dreams and ideals that continue to inspire us to become better people in this planet.

LAST TRIP AND LOCATION SHOOTING IS OVER FOR OUR NEW DISCOVERY DOC

April - 2025

In April we’ve finished location shootings for our new Discovery Channel Documentary about planted trees and the challenges to produce green products while facing climate change. This time we went south Brazil, to discuss renewable energy and circularity. There are very interesting new discoveries in this field of study, transforming planted trees and its cellulose in thousands of biodegradable products, while capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and preserving biodiversity, soil and water resources. We move now to the next and last step of out film: the interviews in São Paulo.

      

SHOOTING CONTINUES FOR DISCOVERY DOC

March - 2025

In March our team could travel throught five Brazilian states studying the science of cloning trees for cellulose production. These new clones can be much more efficient, producing more biomass in a smaller area; they need less water and can resist climate change better. Today, cellulose from these planted trees produce over 5 thousand different products – from medicine to food, from clothes to cosmetics. These products can replace plastic and other fossil-fuel-based ones and they are also biodegradable.

      

FILMING IN BAHIA

February - 2025

February saw our crew traveling again to Bahia State, near the little town of Entre Rios, where we saw how protected areas and tree plantation can hold an enormous amount of biodiversity. We follow biologists (day and night) on their efforts to capture, photograph and catalog different species, studying their habits and behaviors.

            
We followed the steps of herpetologist Igor Macedo, who has been studying these animals for years and how tree crop and forests can become home of a lot of species. They use these areas in different times of the year as places to dwell, hunt or move from one place to another.

      

Filming new Discovery Channel doc

January - 2025

We have finished the first leg of my new Discovery Channel documentary that discusses how trees (in native or preserved forests and in vast plantations) are fundamental to reduce the effects of global warming. To balance conservation and production using new BIOproducts made of cellulose – renewable, biodegradable and sustainable – may be the answer to diminish the pressure over logging and the use of natural enviroments to obtain wood. At the same time, replacing fossil-based raw materials with renewables, from forestry management.

    

A tough film to produce, at the edge of cientific research and discoveries, that opens up a world of possibilities, a so called “Green Revolution” that’s only beginning. First shooting flight ocurred at Bahia state, with the fabulous “forest planters”, and moved to São Paulo state, where we saw cutting edge labs and new products made of wood. February and March will take us to more adventures in different parts of Brazil: Bahia, São Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Paraná, Minas Gerais and Santa Catarina.

    

A heartful thank you to this talented and funny documentary crew: @fabioknoll, @rafaelalozanoo, @somdiretobrasil, @domingues_daniel, @mariana.polli. And at the offices: @minompinho, @cgpnewman, @kenya_zanatta, @kroltrevisan, @casa_redonda.

  

EPISODE 3 OF NEW SERIES UNVEILS ‘BLACK AMAZON’

November - 2024

Third episode of “Geografia da Ausência” (Geography of Absence), my new HBO doc-series, traveled to Rondônia, a Brazilian state inside Amazon’s rainforest domains. Following the foosteps of photographer Marcela Bonfim, our film crew could experience the terrible drought in the region, leaving the mighty Maderia River like a sand desert. There is also serious economic consequences for communities alongside the river, which we were able to see and film.

  

Black communities on the region are many, most of them formed during the rubber cycle, during the late 19th century and first half of the 20th century. Besides remnants of slaves brought to the region from different parts of Brazil, there are also caribbean communities, formed from Barbados, Granada and other British colonies on the region. Today, they form a very solid cultural landscape, mixing different traditions and adding their own flavour to the mix.

  

“Geografia da Ausência” is produced by RedTerra Studios, with Producer & Artistic Director Gideon Boulting, Director of Photography Dado Carlin, Sound Miquéia Motta, Editing Tom Laterza and Original Music Maestro&Simon. Now we jump to the next phase, editing the episodes.

  

EPISODE 2 OF NEW HBO DOC-SERIES FILMED IN MATOPIBA

October - 2024

Second episode of my new doc-series “Geography of Absence”, which documents and amplifies the voice of great characters in their stories of struggles, weakness, injustice and resistence has been filmed in Matopiba region – a place inbetween the Brazilian states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia. It’s a place surrounded by new farmland, devastation, land conflict and ilegal use of water (the region has the second largest aquifer in the country).

  

    

In our journey we followed the steps of Lalo Almeida – award-winning photojournalist whose experience documenting the decay of Brazilian biomes span some decades. The trip got to an end at Gilbués (PI), where desertification is a reality, showing us a very possible future.

    

     

“Geography of Absence” is a three-episode doc-series produced by RedTerra Studios, with executive producer & creative director Gideon Boulting, Dado Carlin DoP, Miquéias Motta: Sound, Tom LaTerza: Editor, Maestro&Simon: Music.

FILMING BEGINS FOR MY NEW HBO DOC SERIES!

September - 2024

“Geografia da Ausência” (Geography of Absence) is my new doc-series. Produced by RedTerra Studios for HBO (WBD), the series travel to Brazil’s distant countryside searching for stories of oppression, silence, resistance and struggle. In this first episode, in Minas Gerais, we could learn – through the eyes of still photographer Isis Medeiros – about the lives of people threatened by the toxic mud produced by the intense mining activity that goes on here for centuries. Mining for iron ore produces this deadly mud stored in precarious dams. Up to now, some of them fell apart, killing hundreds of innocent people.

    

Death and grief, “dam terrorism”, control and domination strategies… Faith and hope resist in a place that is historically characterized by greed and opulence. There we lived difficult days of listening and learning. Our team is led by executive producer & artistic director Gideon Boulting, with writer Douglas Vieira and photography director Dado Carlin. During these 12 days we could follow the toxic mud, mapping this ‘geography of destruction’, discovering human tragedies and losses.

   

volta priscila premieres on disney+

September - 2024

“Volta Priscila”, my new True Crime doc-series, has premiered on Disney+ on September 25th. In four episodes, the series tells the tragic and mysterious story of Priscila Belfort – famous MMA champion Vitor Belfort’ sister, who disappeared without a trace more than 20 years ago, on January 2004. At Walt Disney Company headquarters, in São Paulo, we could show the whole series to the Belfort family, in a private session.

    

“Volta Priscila” is receiving very good reviews up to now and an intense promotion campaign throughout Brazil.

             

We could celebrate with the Belfort family and our Prodigo Films & Disney+ teams a very successful project! Thanks for your friendship and professionalism all the way through!

          

IRON SOCIETY PREMIERES IN SÃO PAULO AND BELO HORIZONTE

September - 2024

My new documentary feature-film “Iron Society – The Structure of Things” premiered on September 5th in São Paulo and Belo Horizonte cinemas. The film analyses the criminal tragedies of Mariana and Brumadinho, revealing the deep connection between mining companies and public authorities in the state of Minas Gerais. Based on the visionary poem “The World Machine” (1951), by the great Minas Gerais poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade, and testimonies from contemporary thinkers and activists, the documentary delves deep into the dark history of iron ore mining in Brazil and its connections with so called Globalization, with the current model of extreme consumerism and global exploitation, exposing a complex and wide panorama of events that underlies transnational corporate capitalism. During the whole week, the documentary had very good reviews in Brazilian online magazines and newspapers.

          

    

On the first exhibition day at Espaço Augusta, in São Paulo, we were honoured to receive a very importat guest: writer José Miguel Wisnik, whose contribution to the film is huge and central to the narrative. After reading his book “Maquinação do Mundo: Drummond e a Mineração” I had the insight to unfold my documentary main storyline.

   

With us on the picture is Eduardo Gripa, the film’s editor, who had a fantastic creative input. A big ‘thank you’ to the great Professor for making this a memorable night!

NEW FILM ABOUT SOUTH AMERICA’S LARGEST OFF-ROAD RACE

August - 2024

In August, I’ve been travelling some 2,500km through Brazil’s countryside filming a new documentary about Rally dos Sertões – the biggest off-road race in the Americas, the second most dangerous competition of its kind, only after Dakar. It’s an EndemolShineBR production that presents the race from inside the cockpit, showcasing the pilot and navigator perspectives and skills. With state-of-the-art technology and engeneering, cars and motobikes endure long distances during a 10-day period of competition.

            

Rally dos Sertões is in its 32nd edition and is considered a very tough and difficult race, crossing through many different terrains, with very high temperatures and complex logistics. Pilots and navigators have to find their ways at high speeds through uknown territory. The film is now in its editing stage and will be ready in November.

         

IRON SOCIETY AND SOBRE_VIVÊNCIAS AT THE ECOFALANTE FILM FESTIVAL

August - 2024

This year I had two projects selected for the 13th Ecofalante Film Festival – the largest Brazilian environmental film competition. “Sobre_Vivências”, produced by Tocha Filmes, discusses climate change/emergency and presents new ideas and possibile solutions to the present crisis. “Iron Society” is a full-lenght documentary feature film, produced by Prodigo Films, Globo Films and GNews, that investigates the ore mining activity in Brazil, combined with the powerful poetry of Carlos Drummond de Andrade – Brazil’s finest poet and a Minas Gerais State native. It was very good to meet friends and discover their opinions about these films!

          

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