Marcelo Machado — Director | Biography, Movies & Career

Biography

Marcelo Machado (Araraquara, June 8, 1958) is a Brazilian filmmaker, known for his work with experimental video in the 1980s and, more recently, for his documentaries.

He graduated in Architecture from USP. In 1981, with former classmates Fernando Meirelles, Beto Salatini and Paulo Morelli, he created the production company Olhar Eletrônico, a creative group that became known for the pioneering and experimental nature of its video productions. In the production company's early works, as producer and director of photography, Marcelo helped to document the emergence of the "Vanguarda Paulista" ("Música na praça", 1981) and to reflect on the conflict between electricity production and ecology in Brazil ("Eletroagentes", 1982). In 1983, his first fictional work, the short film "Marly Normal" (co-directed with Fernando Meirelles) won the main prize at the 1st Festival Video Brasil.

Still in the 1980s, even before the dissolution of Olhar Eletrônico, Marcelo Machado was programming director of TV Gazeta, then production coordinator of TV Cultura. In 1991, he worked on the launching of MTV Brasil. He then took over the Radio and Television Department at the advertising agency DPZ, for which he directed dozens of campaigns and the documentaries "No limits" and "Around the world".

In 2000 he left DPZ, working alternately as director of advertising and of television programs, as well as working in video art. In 2001 he directed the series "Brazilian Music" for the Multishow channel and the special "Drum in Braz" for MTV Brasil. In 2003 he received the award for best electronic music video for "Samba Sim". In 2005, he created and co-directed the feature documentary "Ginga, the soul of Brazilian football" for Bossa Nova Filmes. Since then, he has dedicated himself to feature documentaries, such as "Oscar Niemeyer, the architect of invention" (2007), about Oscar Niemeyer's centennial and "O Sarau" (2011), about the role of poetry in the life of the citizens of Dois Córregos.

In September 2012, after two years of production, he launched the documentary "Tropicália", recovering rare images of the Tropicalist movement and with unpublished interviews with Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Tom Zé and Rogério Duarte.