Gurcius Gewdner — Director | Biography, Movies & Career

Biography

Gurcius Gewdner, born in 1982, screenwriter, editor and director, stood out early in the Brazilian underground with eschatological-dadaist anti-music performances with his group Os Legais, from the mid-90s onwards. Self-taught, but with an academic background in History, his interest in performance art and experimental music gave rise to the desire to make films, which were born parallel to his musical projects.

A multi-faceted filmography: influenced by Christoph Shilingensief, Vera Shitlova, John Waters and the Kuchar brothers, he has several short and medium-length fiction films, including Texas Carlos Massacre (2021), Lieder Die Soldaten Morgen (2019), Bom Dia Carlos (2015, awarded at the Festival des Cinémas Différents de Paris, shown at Fifigrot, Sydney Underground Film Festival, Housecore Horror Festival, among others), Erivaldo: o Astronauta Místico (2013), Freddy Breck Ballet (2010) and Nosferatum (2003, awarded at Cine Esquema Novo). And two feature films that are revered worldwide: Pazucus: Island of Vomit and Despair (2017, an eschatological monster adventure shown on open TV, on Fantaspoa, Film Panic Presents, New Holland Island International Debut Film Festival, Insólito Film Festival, among others) and Mamilos em Chamas (2008), which in 2024 was listed in the book "Cinema Degli Eccessi" by Andrea Guaia, as one of the 100 most shocking films in the history of cinema, alongside masterpieces of extreme cinema such as Saló, Pink Flamingos, Sweet Movie and Irreversible.

Since 1998, Gurcius, in partnership with Petter Baiestorf, has been one of the central figures of Canibal Filmes, the most influential SOV production company of extreme cinema in Brazil, with films such as Zombio 2: Chimarrão Zombies (2013, shown in Sitges, BUT Film Festival, Rojo Sangre, among others), Ninguém Deve Morrer (2009) and the sequel to the cult classic O Monstro Legume do Espaço (1995/2007), a partnership of more than 30 films, including feature-length, medium-length and short films. With performer and director Ligia Marina/Juma Pariri and Colombian activist Margarita Rodriguez Weweli-Lukana, he has been producing a series of experimental indigenous short films, 5 to date, including Hot Air (2023, shown at Echoes Indigenous Film Festival, Māoriland Film Festival, Red Nation International Film Festival, FICCI, Porn Film Festival Berlin, among others), Fôlego Vivo (2021) and Hasta El fin del Mundo (2018). In partnership with legendary photographer and filmmaker Ivan Cardoso, they created a collection of 24 films brought together in the feature film O Baccanal do Diabo (2013, shown in Rotterdam, Karlov Vary, among others) and the experimental O Colírio do Corman (2020). Together with editor Christian Caselli, he put together documentaries with intense archival research such as Ivan O TerriRvel (2019) and Serguei O Psicodélico (2016). He has acted in films such as Tongues of Fire (2024), Black Sea (2013), among others. In music, it is also worth mentioning prolific collaborations with L. Borgia Rosseti and Orquestra Zé Felipe. Parallel to all this, he has a filmography of documentaries about his own creative process, such as the feature film A Nau dos Foos (2021, with appearances by Roger Corman, Olaf Moller and Richard Stanley), Cavalo Marinho vem a Cavalo (2020), Banho Gostoso (2008) and O Triunvirato (2004).