Filmmaking

I make films to fill my time. If I had the strength to do nothing, I would do nothing. It is only because I haven’t the strength to do nothing that I make films.

I make movies because writing was too big a risk.

Doing a movie, by definition, is always jumping into the unknown, even if you have a full script and know all your dialogue.

Meshes of the Afternoon is my point of departure. I am not ashamed of it, for I think that, as a film, it stands up very well. From the point of view of my own development, I cannot help but be gently proud that that first film — that point of departure — had such relatively solid footing. This is due to two major facts: first, to the fact that I... See more

“If I did not live in a time when film was accessible to me as a medium, I would have been a dancer, perhaps, or a singer. But this is a much more marvellous dance. In film, I can make the world dance!”

—Maya Deren

My roots in Brazil are very deep and I decided to stay. I also want to work in Portuguese. I speak English, but it’s not the same, you know. I don’t feel emotions in English like I feel like in Portuguese. When you say ‘mango tree’, I think just mango tree in English; but in Portuguese, it means my childhood, my mother’s house, the fragrance of... See more

O cinema faz-se com os outros, mas é terrivelmente solitário. Para mim, sempre foi assim, algo da ordem da doença. É por isso que grandes cineastas tratam da sua doença num filme e que, quando o vemos, ele tem um poder curativo. Alguns filmes curaram-me, e esta componente solitária do cinema é muito importante para mim.