Luiz Rosemberg Filho — Director | Biography, Movies & Career

Biography

A Brazilian filmmaker, visual artist and essayist who worked extensively in film and video, Luiz Rosemberg Filho (1943 - 2019) is best kown for his features "O Jardim das Espumas" (1971), "A$$untina das Amérikas" (1976), "Crônica de um Industrial" (1978) and "Guerra do Paraguay" (2017).

Rosemberg began his work with the arts as a painter during his teenage years, having his first contact with cinema during the early 1960s. His first film, "Balada da Página 3", is now lost. After releasing "O Jardim das Espumas" in the early 1970s, he moved to Paris, where he stayed until 1974 and became a close friend to fellow Brazilian director Glauber Rocha. By the late 1980s, Rosemberg was already transitioning his medium from film to video, with his works assuming an even more experimental, essayist nature. In the 2000s, he embraced the digital medium.

He was commonly paired with the Brazilian Cinema Marginal movement, even though he rejected this framing for his work. His films "O Jardim das Espumas" and "Crônica de um Industrial" were censored by his country's then ruling military dictatorship. After "O Santo e a Vedete" (1982), he did'nt release a feature until "Dois Casamentos" (2014). Through all of this period (and after it), though, he continued to make short films and produced a number of collages, many of which have film as a subject.

At December 2017, then aged 74, Rosemberg began publishing a series of Facebook posts containing his memories and thoughts on film, his friends, travels, politics, women, censorship, war, love, sex and the passing of time. He published those texts until February 2019, with a total of 404 posts that were later compiled into selected writings by his longtime colaborator, DoP Renaud Leenhardt.

Shortly after releasing "Os Príncipes" (2018), Rosemberg was hospitalized and submited to a surgery that would remove an hernia. He passed away in 2019, having finished the editing process of "Bobo da Corte" (2019), his last film, just before his death.