Editor’s Note: Welcome to “Reel Women,” our annual tribute to dynamic women in creative industries. For the month of March, let us introduce you to some very special women like filmmaker and LOBO director, Lu Villaça.
Lu is a visionary Brazilian film director whose journey in the world of cinema has been defined by a deep-rooted passion for expression and storytelling. With a background in cinema and performing arts, Lu’s artistic journey began at a young age, fueled by a relentless drive to explore the human experience through the lens of creativity.
In 2019, Lu made her commercial directing debut with a groundbreaking advertising film promoting The Next Minute Law in Brazil, a cause close to her heart. This powerful film, advocating for victims of sexual abuse, garnered widespread acclaim and recognition, earning Lu three Cannes Lions awards, as well as Best Director accolades at El Ojo Festival and the Ciclope Latino Festival. Notably, Lu was also honored with the Best New Talent Award at the Ciclope Latino Festival, solidifying her position as a rising star in the industry.
For Lu, storytelling is more than just a profession; it is a calling—a means of delving into the depths of human emotion and experience. She fearlessly dives into the complexities of human relationships, particularly focusing on the stories of women, with a keen understanding of their resilience and strength. Through her work, Lu seeks to provoke thought, challenge societal norms, and inspire change, using the medium of film as a powerful tool for social responsibility and transformation.
While she has achieved success in advertising, with award-winning projects that push the boundaries of storytelling, she is also driven by a desire to create films that transcend commercialism and leave a lasting legacy. Currently, Lu is in the development phase of her first fiction feature film, “Mo Wá,” further showcasing her versatility and ambition as a filmmaker.
Let’s meet Lu!
What’s your origin story?
I was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil. While one side of my family gave me my artistic influence, with an uncle being a film director, aunt an actress and I studying ballet and performing arts during my childhood, the other side of the family were farmers, so I spent a huge part of my childhood and adolescence on the Brazilian countryside.
I think this made me develop a contemplative way to look at life, an acceptance of a more melancholic time and a relationship with the soul of things. The observation of the other. The people who live in the countryside of Brazil are humble, but they always seem much more satisfied and complete than the people of the city. There is a naivety that embellishes life in what is most human and visceral in it, and I am sure that I carry this heritage with me in my eyes.
A life closer to nature made me like to talk about a possible life in which the greatest values are in the humanized aspects. The cities where I lived in, such as São Paulo and New York, shaped my aesthetic look, my pulsating search for fulfillment. The countryside has shaped my subjective and my subjects.
How did you get into your industry?
When I graduated from high school, I applied to college for Performing Arts and Filmmaking. At that point, I still thought my main plan was to be an actress. My uncle, the film director, was about to start shooting a feature film and suggested that I experience cinema before studying cinema, because it is only on set that you discover what this craft is (he was so right!). So before I even started college, I joined his crew as an intern.
That’s when I understood my place was behind the camera. All my study of performing arts (I completed my studies in both areas) is very much applied in my direction of actors and even in the deepest and most sensitive investigations with my characters. But once I saw the power of an entire crew together telling a story and provoking feelings through different knowledge and techniques, which add up, I knew I wanted to be a part of it.
And today I feel that I am in a beautiful place, a privilege of life, which is to be able to tell my stories together with so many wonderful, talented and sensitive people who add their subjectivities and creativity to mine, and together we form something greater than all of us.
Who were your mentors?
My great mentor is my uncle, Luiz Villaça (yes, we have pretty similar names). Not only did he bring me to my first feature film set I went to, but I was also his general assistant for 5 years after that.
My uncle taught me how to work, and he taught me how to be a director (which means a lot more than directing films). He taught me how to create but also how to use this place of leadership with the responsibility of those who can influence how healthy, humanized and respectful a process, a set, or a production is.
He taught me the value of the stories we have the desire to communicate. He taught us how precious our creative connections are and how intrinsically collective is our art. Another great master for me was Cássio Brasil, a costume designer for my uncle’s film in which I was a costume intern. Cássio invited me to spend a few afternoons at his house before the pre-production period started and taught me everything: how to read and decoupage scripts, how to research… He was very generous.
Every other director, as well as producers, production designers, and editors that I have worked with has taught me something. Everyone still does. I am very grateful to do something that involves so much interchange between beings.
While there will be others, what do you consider your biggest achievement to date?
I feel like I have 2 equally important biggest achievements to date. The first is the co-direction of my documentary feature film Pagliacci, this dive full of adventures that is to make a documentary, to investigate other truths, especially within a spectrum as complex as the clown character and the artists who make a living from the circus in Brazil.
The second, in the world of advertising, is a film that has given me happiness far beyond my career, but also as a human being: the film I made about raising awareness of the Next Minute Law (a Brazilian law that guarantees immediate and free care to victims of sexual violence, that in 2023 registered its record number in sexual violence cases.
This was a special achievement both professionally (with 3 Cannes Lions, Gold for Best Direction at the Ciclope Latino Festival, Best New Talent title at the Ciclope Latino Festival and Silver for Best Director at the El Ojo Iberoamerica Festival, and personally because it showed me how I can put more meaning into everything I do, including advertising.
How I can use my voice as a Latin woman, and to assume responsibility to be in a position to communicate for the causes that touch me. To give voice to what really happens to my fellow human beings.
What drives you to create?
Definitely my desire to soften loneliness, to deal with how alone I feel with my emotions. And to be able to make other human beings feel less alone, too. I feel I can do this with stories and feelings that unite us all, that bring us closer to our existential condition. I think it’s the beautiful chance that life allows me to maybe inspire someone to find life more beautiful, in spite of everything (because I like to talk about real life, which is amazing, sweet, and also full of pain and misunderstandings). It can be challenging, but after all, it’s really cool to be alive.
And bringing this together through narratives and pictures, this understanding of imperfection as something we can embrace and deal with, is what drives me. I think in a nutshell it’s about closing the distance that separates me from everyone, and that everyone feels separate from everyone else. It is the possibility of provoking reflections and feelings.
What is a product or service you dream of doing a campaign for?
I dream of shooting for Volvo! Because I love the narrative, the aesthetic, how cinematographic the scripts and cinematography always are. And I think we should have more women directing car commercials.
Award you crave, but haven’t won?
I don’t think I have any specific award I crave. I am always glad to have my work acknowledged, any award is special for me!
Female-directed franchise films such as Star Wars or MCU constantly get called “woke” by Internet trolls. Why?
I think many people (and on the Internet they are cowardly anonymous) are not ready for all the space women are proving to be deserving. Actually, this is the history of our existence, right? Some people have always feared women and how capable of being so multifaceted we are. We are loving, and strong, and nurturing yet fighters.
We can reproduce, we are intuitive… I kind of see why we are daunting to some. And when they fear us, they try to devalue us. So, I think these are just some bad-digested reactions from those who still couldn’t assimilate the world transformations.
Coffee, Lunch or Happy Hour
Coffee: Bell Hooks. I would love to be inspired by her kind and brave heart while learning with her brilliant mind.
Lunch: Could I ask Marina Abramovic and Françoise Gillot if they would sit together and then it will be the 3 of us? So I could hear them discussing the power of art over our own existence and others too.
Happy Hour: Definitely Iris Apfel, so she would encourage me to express myself with every single cell of my body, how to fight ageism and, more than anything, how to face life preserving an unbreakable grace and sense of humor.
It’s an election year, what is keeping you up at night?
Well, I am a Brazilian, but I sure do worry a lot about the American elections since American culture and events reflect so directly on Brazilian culture and behavior. What I fear the most is the violent mindset we witness arising during the last 8 years.
All the prejudice our society seems to have reabsorbed lately, things that people have been fighting against for so many years were again legitimized by some leaders. This is so sad and disturbing. We need to understand that our politicians are far more than just laws, economic projects and such… they dictate society perspectives, they influence our humanity.
Favorite movie and TV show of 2023?
This is a tough one. 2023 was an amazing year cinema-wise in my opinion. But I think I’m gonna stick with Past Lives. This one has a special place for me. Celine Song achieved something very precious: the film is so deep, yet she doesn’t force you to find it so. She trusts the subtle things.
And she was able to powerfully bring her background identity and culture into a completely universal narrative. You love and understand every single character. You empathize with their struggles, sufferings, feelings and decisions.
I love scripts like this because I think this is how life is: we are all so complex, full of our reasons, we are all trying to find our ways and listen to our hearts, but sometimes we have so many other interferences… Celine made me look at that film and believe that it was a portrait of real existence.
Band or singer you would ditch your career and go perform with?
Look, this year something very special is going to happen in the Brazilian popular music scene: Caetano Veloso and Maria Bethânia – siblings, gods of Brazilian music, and cultural (and political) heritage of my country – will do a mini tour together.
Both are around 80 years old and have an impressive career, songs that permeate the lives of all Brazilians.
They have such a special energy, they went through so many things and helped build our history. They symbolize a beautiful relationship with Bahia and with being from this land. I’d drop everything to do this tour with them.
What’s your theme song for 2024?
I have a lifetime theme song. Although I get older every year (we all do, right? Haha) I still feel like I am crawling and trying to understand my existence and do the best of it. And this song always makes me calmer about it and able to find life beautiful, no matter what is happening. The song is Vienna, by Billy Joel.
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