João Paulo Cuenca

Based on the historical fact of the arrival of the Portuguese royal family to Rio de Janeiro in 1808, Cidade Invisível proposes an upside-down archeology when questioning the myth of the Marvelous City and the irreverence of the Carioca.

An experimental trip about Brazil after H.O.

In 2008, a corpse identified by the police with the birth certificate of the writer João Paulo Cuenca was found in an occupied building in Lapa. Inspired by this fact, the movie investigates the theft of the author´s identity in a ghostly Rio de Janeiro and in deep transformation. If in fiction and in crime sections of newspapers it’s common to read about people who steal the identity of someone dead to start a new life, what we have here is the opposite case: someone who steals the identity of a living man to die in his place.

After a satirical tweet targeting Bolsonaro and the Universal Church, J.P. Cuenca became the target of 144 lawsuits and thousands of death threats from the evangelical far right. Seeking dialogue, he embarks on an 11,000-kilometer journey through packed churches, rodeos, German festivals, shooting clubs, home worship services, and gospel trucks across every region of Brazil. Amid ecological devastation, religious fervor, and an impending apocalypse, a Brazil in trance reaches an apotheosis of color, music, and faith.

Portuguese director Miguel Gonçalves Mendes and Brazilian writers Tatiana Salem Levy and João Paulo Cuenca travel to the Far East to exchange experiences with artists and thinkers from Macau, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.