RICARDO CHREEM - DIRECTOR, WRITER, PRODUCER

RICARDO CHREEM

DIRECTOR, WRITER, PRODUCER

" From the blank page until the finalized script, the idea of constructing a project from zero is a challenge for me as a producer, as a director, and as writer. Also, joining emotions, images and sounds is something I love and pursue as a film director and as the artist that I am." Says Chreem.

Intrigued by human relationships, he moves through his work investigating the questions that involve contemporary humans and their forms of expression, the search of meaning and purpose. His work suffered the influences of surrealism, the Theater of Protest, Theater of the Absurd and Counterculture. It tries to raise questions and encourage possible transformations in the human condition.

He sees himself as a kind of Renaissance artist, where a willingness to learn and explore, added to faith in humanism is what makes sense in a world turned upside down.

" I've always sought to improve all the skills I’ve judged necessary to give me a whole vision, even before becoming a filmmaker. From my first short movies to my first feature film, I've been studying and continuously practicing all the areas involved to achieve the best final result, as initially idealized. In this way, I've developed a unique eye and voice. Also, being a storyteller myself gives me a vision eye to understand the different narratives and their countless ways to tell them." Says Chreem.

He started his career specializing in scenic installations, at “Bienal” in São Paulo at the Museum of Contemporary Art, where puppets the size of a human, composed a large scenography illustrating a social satire. The installations gained some mechanical devices and movements. Many other exhibitions followed.

From there, he began directing performances art with actors. Unforgettable performances at the "Dr. Smith" or works in process with Chreem as author-actor at “CEP 20.000,” at the cultural center “Sergio Porto,” cradle of the “Carioca” vanguard, where he blew up giant balloons full of flour on himself.

At the end of 1999, he released his book "2000 Less Nothing." In 2003, still based on it, he creates with his director Bianca Ramoneda "More Days, fewer Days,” a solo-performance tragicomedy, where he acted and composed the soundtrack together with the famous pop-music artist Pedro Luís, and which culminated in funny and surreal results about daily life. It was a complete success, and he was invited to return to Sergio Porto theater the following year with great performances and the same success.

In 2005, he worked on the exhibition "On the Art of Crossing Through Walls," where resin sculptures that had penetrated the wall dived onto acrylic paintings.

In 2008, he writes, direct, and acts in his first short film “I Refuse to Play the Role of a Lamp," together with the team of N.A.D.A, a designer group from the University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC). The short film won Best Documentary in Social Policy Category in the Euro Film Festival.

In the same year, the Festival “RioCenaContemporary” invited Chreem to present his creation: the movement performance “March of Indignant Lamps”. In this edition, he presented on the streets of Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro this irreverently surrealistic piece, where 25 actors dress as lighted lamps and leave in a march to the city. The process of this experience was registered in the short documentary movie “the indignant March of the Lamps” in 2010.

In 2012, he studied directing at Met Film School in Ealing Broadway, London, where he shot “The Floor Below".

In 2013, he concludes the filmmaking course at New York Film Academy where he shot the short “Brain Storm” for his final work.

Back in Brazil, he shot the short “S.O.S. URB," a hyper-realistic short movie about contemporary life in big cities. At the invitation of the "O Globo" newspaper, this short and "The red carpet" were released in the first edition of “Globo Mais.”

In 2014, he released unpublished short movies at Laura Alvim Cultural Center: “S.O.S URB”, “Brain Storm”, “I Refuse the Role of a Lamp” and the prize-winning “What Is an Actor?”, an unfolded from "Red Carpet".

In 2015, he shot “Photo Shoot of a Bald Head," winning the Gold Award in Cinematography and Best Documentary in the Euro Film Festival.

In 2017, he acted in the play “A Clowns’ Evening," with other Brazilian clowns on the stage, where each one presented his solo. Chreem’s solo performance is “The Cell State of the Being," which became a short documentary as well. In it, he plays the role of a social-phobic actor who invented a kind of mask made of several mobile phones, to talk about the addictive use of phones. It is a metaphor about how our communication/expressions have changed in the last decade and how we defend ourselves behind the screens.

“Lovely Clownettes,” his first feature, a film about lady clowns, won the Best Documentary award in the Women’s International Film Festival in the U.S.A. in 2020.

In 2021, he finalized “Lispector and I," a short film about the famous writer Clarice Lispector and is working in his new Experimental movie " The machine my heart was" and the documentary Series " Self interview.