Open Season

João Italo

João Italo is a young filmmaker, advertising, documentaries and music videos. The Brazilian filmmaker carries in his career the importance of entrepreneurship in cinema, he is the winner of 4 awards for initiatives for independent cinema. His productions always bring a stylistic choice that represents his origin and elevates the cinematographic image of his country.

Director Statement

As a Brazilian and a peripheral person in my country, I fight for the democratization of access to cinema and for the revolt against the elitist circles that I encounter in my career. Horror cinema has been my study for years, and “Open Season” is my most personal film, which overflows the strength of social, fantasy and horror cinema, as it tells part of my family’s story with the horrors suffered by my country source. 1968 to 1984, by the military dictatorship. The day on which the film takes place, as you can see in the teaser, is the day on which AI5 was announced, a constitutional article that gave carte blanche to the dismantling of democracy, political rights, civic rights, art and culture .
The characters are a portrait of my great-grandparents and my mother, set in the house in which most of the generations of my family were born and died. Taking place on the balcony where I learned to fall in love with the art of storytelling, with scary folklore, I consider the film to be a personal milestone, for my small town and for my family.
The short is a fantasy and very faithful to my culture, country and family. In the last 4 years, we have suffered from a government that called for the return of dictatorship and the horrors of democracy. For 4 years we were prevented from creating culture and, in the first year after the end of the previous government, I finally managed to make this film, which is already having repercussions in São Paulo and outside our country.