Leonardo Martinelli
Locarno Residency 2022 | Brazil
Locarno Residency 2022 | Brazil
Leonardo Martinelli (1998) is a filmmaker from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His films have been selected in festivals worldwide such as Locarno, San Sebastián, BFI London, Clermont-Ferrand, Palm Springs, Cartagena, Biarritz, Montreal and others. With the short Fantasma Neon he won the Pardino D’oro at Locarno74. His films often deal with iconography and postcolonial structures, and how they are present in Rio de Janeiro's everyday life. While doing so, he aims to think of how a larger and endemic situation in Brazil and Latin America is reflected in the microcosm. In a vote carried out by Brazilian film critics, where they considered short film directors who haven’t yet made feature films, he was listed as one of the Top 10 New Brazilian Filmmakers by Papo de Cinema. He also holds a Master's degree in Social Communication from PUC-Rio and is currently in development of his first feature film.
2017 Vidas Cinzas
2019 Copacabana Madureira
2020 O Prazer de Matar Insetos
Production: Duas Mariolas Filmes
João Lázaro works on the streets of Rio de Janeiro as a bike delivery man in the so-called gig economy. He reconnects with an old partner, and they dream about buying a motorcycle, traveling the country, and transforming their lives into a musical. However, even their choreographed and singing fantasies crash back into their harsh reality of inadequate wages, unempathetic customers and constant threats that surround them. A tale about inequality in contemporary labor and the cost of fighting for a decent life.
The delivery worker symbolizes the lack of labor rights in Brazil today. While facing this harsh reality, we'll use the musical genre on a quest to subvert the way we expect to see these stories on the screen. Music and dance come into play here not to pretend that everything is fine, but precisely to show that it is not.
