Rogério Sganzerla

Directing

Rogério Sganzerla

Born — Died

1946-11-26 — 2004-01-09

Place of birth

Joaçaba, Santa Catarina, Brazil

Known for

Directing

Credits

65 titles

Rogério Sganzerla (1946 — 2004) was a Brazilian filmmaker and one of the main names of the Cinema de Invenção (or Cinema Marginal) underground movement. Influenced by Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, and José Mojica Marins, Sganzerla often used clichés from film noir and pornochanchadas. Irony, narrative subversion and collage were trademarks of his film aesthetics. Sganzerla was born in Joaçaba, in the state of Santa Catarina, but moved with his family to São Paulo at a very young age, living there for most of his life. During the 1960s he wrote for the newspaper "O Estado de S. Paulo" ("The State of S. Paulo") as film critic, quickly being recognised as a young talent. In 1967, Sganzerla …

Known for

Identidade poster
NR

During a screening of Oedipus Rex in a run-down movie theater in downtown Rio, three peculiar characters—a frustrated projectionist, his intern, and a wandering poet—decide to interrupt the film to discuss the death of cinema. The audience revolts. So does the film.

Identidade

2026

The Red Light Bandit poster
7.6

Born and raised in the misery of Brazilian slums, Jorge becomes a luxury house burglar in São Paulo and gets nicknamed "The Red Light Bandit" by the sensationalist press. In addition to wearing a red flashlight, he talks to his hostages in an irreverent tone and makes bold breakthroughs to later spend the money extravagantly. His world is the decadent neighbourhood of Boca do Lixo.

The Red Light Bandit

1968

Glauber Rocha - The Movie, Brazil's Labyrinth poster
6.3

Documentary about Brazilian filmmaker Glauber Rocha, one of the most important names in the Cinema Novo, with interviews with some of his friends and colleagues.

Glauber Rocha - The Movie, Brazil's Labyrinth

2003

Oswaldianas poster
9.0

Collective film with five segments around the works and life of brazilian writer Oswald de Andrade.

Oswaldianas

1992

Irani poster
7.0

Register a popular celebration related to a battle fought in the city of Irani, starting point of Contestado War at Santa Catarina State, Brazil in 1912.

Irani

1983

The Rowdy Family poster
5.7

A dysfunctional family, composed of a prostitute and two gay men, one strong and the other fragile and stupid, lives a routine life in Rio de Janeiro. When the slut threatens the other two to stop supporting them, they decide to find an odalisque as an alternative to keep their easy life.

The Rowdy Family

1970

Film credits

2020s · 5 titles

Identidade poster
NR

During a screening of Oedipus Rex in a run-down movie theater in downtown Rio, three peculiar characters—a frustrated projectionist, his intern, and a wandering poet—decide to interrupt the film to discuss the death of cinema. The audience revolts. So does the film.

Identidade

2026

Candango: Memoirs from a Festival poster
5.0

In 1965, a year after the military coup in Brazil, an oasis of freedom opened in the country's capital. The Brasília Film Festival: a landmark of cultural and political resistance. Its story is that of Brazilian cinema itself.

Candango: Memoirs from a Festival

2020

The Long Voyage of the Yellow Bus poster
9.0

For this behemoth, Bressane took his opera omnia and edited it in an order that first adheres to historical chronology but soon starts to move backwards and forward. The various pasts – the 60s, the 80s, the 2000s – comment on each other in a way that sheds light on Bressane’s themes and obsessions, which become increasingly apparent and finally, a whole idea of cinema reveals itself to the curious and patient viewer. Will Bressane, from now on, rework The Long Voyage of the Yellow Bus when he makes another film? Is this his latest beginning? Why not, for the eternally young master maverick seems to embark on a maiden voyage with each and every new film!

The Long Voyage of the Yellow Bus

2023

The Good Cinema poster
NR

An authentically marginal cinema created in Catholic university in Brazil. One of the most intriguing and imaginative moments in modern cinema in the voice of some of its select conspirators—with Carlos Reichenbach at the lead—, and through the most razing flow of images that can possibly be conceived.

The Good Cinema

2021

Ivan, the TerrirBle poster
1.0

Ivan Cardoso is the inventor of the terrir, a subgenre that mixes comedy, Brazilian chanchadas and classic American horror. This film promotes a rescue of his work by mixing archival material, animations and fictional reconstructions.

Ivan, the TerrirBle

2020

2010s · 6 titles

Brazilian Cinema in the 20th Century poster
NR

Two years of research and visits to collections, cinematheques and museums; almost seventy interviews that generated 30 hours of recorded material; more than two hundred scanned photos and more than one hundred films watched. In total, more than a thousand hours of work were needed to prepare Brazilian Cinema in the 20th Century. The work is a fascinating journey through all the cinematic cycles that Brazil lived, from the pioneering Belle Époque, through the great studios like Atlântica and Cinédia, Cinema Novo, the urban comedies of the 70's, until the resumption in the late 90's. The documentary is unique, it gives the floor to who really wrote and lived this story intensely.

Brazilian Cinema in the 20th Century

2017

Dunas do Barato poster
5.5

A rescue of the history of Ipanema beach in the 1970s, when the construction of a pier changed the landscape and created fertile soil for a generation of artists and sportsmen.

Dunas do Barato

2017

Extracts poster
NR

Extracts is a short film with images from 1970 to 1972 in the cities of Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, London, Marrakech, Rabat and the Sahara Desert region. The images were filmed by Helena Ignez and Rogério Sganzerla in exile, in the "leaden years" of the military dictatorship.

Extracts

2019

Mr. Sganzerla: Os Signos da Luz poster
3.5

A documentary on prolific underground Brazilian filmmaker Rogério Sganzerla.

Mr. Sganzerla: Os Signos da Luz

2012

A Mulher da Luz Própria poster
8.0

Helena Ignez is one of the main female figures of Brazilian cinema. She developed a new style of acting. Nowadays, she directs independent films. The documentary tells some of the History of Brazilian cinema, its political context and Helena's trajectory.

A Mulher da Luz Própria

2019

Copacabana, Mon Amour: A Restauração poster
NR

A documentary on the restoration of Rogério Sganzerla's 1970 film "Copacabana, Mon Amour".

Copacabana, Mon Amour: A Restauração

2014

2000s · 6 titles

1990s · 3 titles

Behind the camera

The Red Light Bandit poster
7.6

Born and raised in the misery of Brazilian slums, Jorge becomes a luxury house burglar in São Paulo and gets nicknamed "The Red Light Bandit" by the sensationalist press. In addition to wearing a red flashlight, he talks to his hostages in an irreverent tone and makes bold breakthroughs to later spend the money extravagantly. His world is the decadent neighbourhood of Boca do Lixo.

The Red Light Bandit

1968

The Red Light Bandit poster
7.6

Born and raised in the misery of Brazilian slums, Jorge becomes a luxury house burglar in São Paulo and gets nicknamed "The Red Light Bandit" by the sensationalist press. In addition to wearing a red flashlight, he talks to his hostages in an irreverent tone and makes bold breakthroughs to later spend the money extravagantly. His world is the decadent neighbourhood of Boca do Lixo.

The Red Light Bandit

1968

The Red Light Bandit poster
7.6

Born and raised in the misery of Brazilian slums, Jorge becomes a luxury house burglar in São Paulo and gets nicknamed "The Red Light Bandit" by the sensationalist press. In addition to wearing a red flashlight, he talks to his hostages in an irreverent tone and makes bold breakthroughs to later spend the money extravagantly. His world is the decadent neighbourhood of Boca do Lixo.

The Red Light Bandit

1968

Oswaldianas poster
9.0

Collective film with five segments around the works and life of brazilian writer Oswald de Andrade.

Oswaldianas

1992

Irani poster
7.0

Register a popular celebration related to a battle fought in the city of Irani, starting point of Contestado War at Santa Catarina State, Brazil in 1912.

Irani

1983

Irani poster
7.0

Register a popular celebration related to a battle fought in the city of Irani, starting point of Contestado War at Santa Catarina State, Brazil in 1912.

Irani

1983

The Rowdy Family poster
5.7

A dysfunctional family, composed of a prostitute and two gay men, one strong and the other fragile and stupid, lives a routine life in Rio de Janeiro. When the slut threatens the other two to stop supporting them, they decide to find an odalisque as an alternative to keep their easy life.

The Rowdy Family

1970

It's Not All True poster
6.9

Orson Welles goes to Brazil to shoot his documentary It's All True.

It's Not All True

1986

It's Not All True poster
6.9

Orson Welles goes to Brazil to shoot his documentary It's All True.

It's Not All True

1986

Documentário poster
8.0

Two young men decide to go to the cinema. However, since their tastes are very strict, they end up in a quarrel.

Documentário

1966

Documentário poster
8.0

Two young men decide to go to the cinema. However, since their tastes are very strict, they end up in a quarrel.

Documentário

1966

Documentário poster
8.0

Two young men decide to go to the cinema. However, since their tastes are very strict, they end up in a quarrel.

Documentário

1966

The Woman of Everyone poster
7.8

Ângela Carne e Osso (Angela Meat and Bone), a young nymphomaniac, lives surrounded by delinquents, and exerts intense allure on them, dominating them all with her erotic power.

The Woman of Everyone

1969

The Woman of Everyone poster
7.8

Ângela Carne e Osso (Angela Meat and Bone), a young nymphomaniac, lives surrounded by delinquents, and exerts intense allure on them, dominating them all with her erotic power.

The Woman of Everyone

1969

The Woman of Everyone poster
7.8

Ângela Carne e Osso (Angela Meat and Bone), a young nymphomaniac, lives surrounded by delinquents, and exerts intense allure on them, dominating them all with her erotic power.

The Woman of Everyone

1969

Copacabana Mon Amour poster
7.3

Sônia and her homosexual brother are both believed by their mother to be possessed by the devil. She works as a prostitute in the streets of Copacabana and he’s a servant who falls madly in love with his employer.

Copacabana Mon Amour

1970

Copacabana Mon Amour poster
7.3

Sônia and her homosexual brother are both believed by their mother to be possessed by the devil. She works as a prostitute in the streets of Copacabana and he’s a servant who falls madly in love with his employer.

Copacabana Mon Amour

1970

Copacabana Mon Amour poster
7.3

Sônia and her homosexual brother are both believed by their mother to be possessed by the devil. She works as a prostitute in the streets of Copacabana and he’s a servant who falls madly in love with his employer.

Copacabana Mon Amour

1970

Welles' Language poster
7.3

Orson Welles acted in Brazilian culture and music by deeply researching Brazil's historical geology, consciously completing a legendary cultural mission. Although being turned down by Hollywood producers, he developed a triumphantly accomplished mission in the language domain - three friends of Welles' testified his love for cinema, his passion for Brazilian music and people and his obstinate endurance against formidable pressures coming from inside and outside Hollywood regarding his unfinished "It's All True".

Welles' Language

1990

Baron Olavo, The Horrible poster
6.0

Bressane’s first color film, shot in the home of the artist Elyseu Visconti. Part of it is missing sound and final editing because the director was forced to leave Brazil. Horror and humor to deal with the subject of insanity: “In the end everyone leaves the house as though they were laboratory mice escaping, they invade the city and contaminate the world”. “If we talk about horror, this film deals with national horror, with Mojica Marins as an emblem. There might be a few touches of Corman and English horror, but it is another level of horror. What transformed the film was the location where we were shooting, the house of a 19th century painter, a receptacle of light. When I arrived and saw that house, that light, I said: ‘This is the film. This is the horror’. The meaning of the film, its appeal, derives from this laboratory of light” (J. Bressane). — Torino Film Festival

Baron Olavo, The Horrible

1970

It's All Brazil poster
6.4

A film essay about Brazil discovered through Orson Welles' eyes during the shooting of It's All True.

It's All Brazil

1997

It's All Brazil poster
6.4

A film essay about Brazil discovered through Orson Welles' eyes during the shooting of It's All True.

It's All Brazil

1997

It's All Brazil poster
6.4

A film essay about Brazil discovered through Orson Welles' eyes during the shooting of It's All True.

It's All Brazil

1997

Light in Darkness: The Return of Red Light Bandit poster
5.2

Jorge, bastard child of the infamous Red Light Bandit, decides himself to pursuit a life of crime after meeting with his father, who has been incarcerated for the last 30 years.

Light in Darkness: The Return of Red Light Bandit

2012

My Calendar Girl poster
2.0

A film in which dream and reality intertwine, A Moça do Calendário tells the story of inácio, 40, married, without a permanent job. Ex-street sweeper, he works as a mechanic at Barato da Pesada, where he dreams of the calendar girl.

My Calendar Girl

2018

The Sign of Chaos poster
7.2

A customs agent, Dr. Amnésio, examines some reels of film, a documentary Orson Welles made about Brazil, and tries to confiscate the material. Then, a party in which repression agents celebrate their victory against freedom and creativity.

The Sign of Chaos

2003

The Sign of Chaos poster
7.2

A customs agent, Dr. Amnésio, examines some reels of film, a documentary Orson Welles made about Brazil, and tries to confiscate the material. Then, a party in which repression agents celebrate their victory against freedom and creativity.

The Sign of Chaos

2003

The Sign of Chaos poster
7.2

A customs agent, Dr. Amnésio, examines some reels of film, a documentary Orson Welles made about Brazil, and tries to confiscate the material. Then, a party in which repression agents celebrate their victory against freedom and creativity.

The Sign of Chaos

2003

Ritos Populares: Umbanda no Brasil poster
6.0

A documentary based on the book Umbanda no Brasil by the scholar Mata e Silva, who is interviewed by the director. The book studies the Brazilian religion known as spiritism, a syncretism of African beliefs and magical rites, Indian beliefs and images, and Catholic symbols.

Ritos Populares: Umbanda no Brasil

1986

Ritos Populares: Umbanda no Brasil poster
6.0

A documentary based on the book Umbanda no Brasil by the scholar Mata e Silva, who is interviewed by the director. The book studies the Brazilian religion known as spiritism, a syncretism of African beliefs and magical rites, Indian beliefs and images, and Catholic symbols.

Ritos Populares: Umbanda no Brasil

1986

Ritos Populares: Umbanda no Brasil poster
6.0

A documentary based on the book Umbanda no Brasil by the scholar Mata e Silva, who is interviewed by the director. The book studies the Brazilian religion known as spiritism, a syncretism of African beliefs and magical rites, Indian beliefs and images, and Catholic symbols.

Ritos Populares: Umbanda no Brasil

1986

Informação H. J. Koellreutter poster
5.0

No synopsis available yet.

Informação H. J. Koellreutter

2003

Isto é Noel Rosa poster
6.2

The life of samba composer Noel Rosa.

Isto é Noel Rosa

1990

Isto é Noel Rosa poster
6.2

The life of samba composer Noel Rosa.

Isto é Noel Rosa

1990

América: O Grande Acerto de Vespúcio poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

América: O Grande Acerto de Vespúcio

1992

A Cidade do Salvador (Petróleo Jorrou na Bahia) poster
7.0

Documentary about power and class relations in the sociocultural context of Bahia, considering the history of oil extraction in the state.

A Cidade do Salvador (Petróleo Jorrou na Bahia)

1981

A Cidade do Salvador (Petróleo Jorrou na Bahia) poster
7.0

Documentary about power and class relations in the sociocultural context of Bahia, considering the history of oil extraction in the state.

A Cidade do Salvador (Petróleo Jorrou na Bahia)

1981

Noel por Noel poster
8.0

Homage to the great Brazilian samba songwriter Noel Rosa (1910-1937).

Noel por Noel

1981

Noel por Noel poster
8.0

Homage to the great Brazilian samba songwriter Noel Rosa (1910-1937).

Noel por Noel

1981

Noel por Noel poster
8.0

Homage to the great Brazilian samba songwriter Noel Rosa (1910-1937).

Noel por Noel

1981