Santiago

Biography of the director

João Moreira Salles
Documentary filmmaker. In 1985 he wrote the screenplay for the documentary series Japan, a Journey in Time. In 1987 he directed China, The Empire of the Center and wrote the screenplay for Krajberg, the Poet of the Remains. Two years later he directed the television series America and the documentary Poetry is One or Two Lines and Behind it a Huge Landscape about poet Ana Cristina César. In 1990 he directed Blues. For cable channel GNT, he directed the documentary Jorge Amado, about race relation in Brazil and the series Football, co-directed with Arthur Fontes. Together with Katia Lund, he directed News of a Personal War, about urban violence in Brazil. In 2000 he directed The Valley, a documentary about the environmental devastation of the Paraíba Valley and Santa Cruz: Holy Cross about the growth of an evangelical church in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro. Both these films were made with journalist Marcos Sá Corrêa. In 2002, João Salles directed Nelson Freire, his first documentary for cinema. In recent years he has directed Intermissions (2004), Santiago (2007), In the Intense Now (2017) and has produced Last Conversations, the last documentary film by Eduardo Coutinho, who died in 2014.