Fernando Grostein Andrade

Career

Andrade graduated in Business Administration at the Fundação Getúlio Vargas, in São Paulo. He then studied film at CINUSP, USC and UCLA.

Andrade began his career in communications at the advertisement agency DM9DDB and the radio station Jovem Pan 2 when he was only 15 years-old. At 16 he began to write articles for Trip magazine's website and for Playboy magazine.

Due to his distinguished work with documentaries, Andrade gives lectures on universities around Brazil and world. For example, in 2014 he was invited to speak at the Igniting Innovation Summit on Social Entrepreneurship, at Harvard University where he presented a short film about his work. The film went viral in Brazil with more than 700,000 views.

His documentary "Breaking the Taboo" became a Facebook page and a media outlet that advocates for feminism, African American people rights, Gay rights among other important issues. The page has more than 5,5 million followers with posts reaching around 160 million people

Andrade is very socially engajed. He has helped refund and reactivate the theater group "Do Lado de Cá" - formed by inmates of Guarulhos maximum security penitentiary in São Paulo. The inmates acted in Andrade's most recent production, "Na Quebrada", which had many scenes filmed inside the prison. The movie was made to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the NGO Instituto Criar.

Andrade is also one of the co-founders of Mapa Educação, a youth movement for education in Brazil. Mapa was created in 2014 with the goal to make education the priority issue of that year’s presidential elections. Since then, the movement has organized several debates with experts, challenged politicians on their views and promisses to improve the Brazilian education system and mobilized the Brazilian youth in all five regions of the country. The movement is currently conducting a national poll to better understand what students envision for their own education.

Awards

Fernando has won 2 Cannes Gold Lions and 5 Cannes Bronze Lions for his campaign Kombi last wishes Gold in FIAP and WAVE Awardsfor the campaign of EOS Convertible, top 10 finalists of yourfilm festival and Man of The Year by GQ Magazine in 2011. In addition, Quebrando o Tabu received the award winner of best documentary by popular vote in the Brazilian Grand Prix of Cinema in 2012. In 2017, "Carcereiros", series based on the book by Drauzio Varella, won the MIPDrama Screenings in Cannes, France. The series is a co-production between Globo, Spray Filmes and Gullane and had some episodes directed by Fernando.

Film

In 2001, he made his first short film Strawberry, the first shot in HD at 24 frames per second in Brazil. It introduced the actor Guilherme Berenguer in addition to featuring other well-known actors, such as Fernanda Rodrigues and Daniel Dantas. The short film opened the International Brasília Festival, the 27th São Paulo International Film Festival and the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films.

In 2003, Andrade embarked on a journey with Caetano Veloso to São Paulo, New York and Japan. For 42 days, he documented the artist's discomfort with the recent success of his English language album internationally, revealing a new side of the Brazilian music master. With participations of Michelangelo Antonioni, Pedro Almodóvar and David Byrne, the documentary Wandering Heart was premiered by Paramount in Brazil. Wandering Heart, directed, photographed and edited by Andrade, was screened at the "It's All True" Festival and at the Rome Festival, both in 2008. In Rome, the production was very well received. According to Eric J Lyman, Hollywood Reporter, it was "one of the highlights of the weekend." The screening took place at the Conciliazione Auditorium and was graced with the presence of Blasco Giurato – the cinematographer of Cinema Paradiso, who in 2015 worked with Andrade on a Coca-Cola advertising campaign for Christmas, "Uma Ponte Para Noel". "Wandering Heart" was one of the last registries of the filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni, who passed away in 2007. The film critic and founder of the "It's All True" festival, Amir Labaki, considered the documentary "The most revealing portrait of Caetano. A figure that is here to stay." The critic from O Globo newspaper, Marcelo Janot, considered it "The best film from the recent batch of documentaries of Brazilian musicians."

In 2010, Andrade directed the branded content documentary short Newspaper of the Future. The short film documents changes within the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo during the integration with its on-line counterpart, Folha.com. It also showcased the new graphic design template being implemented and presented to the newspapers employees.

In 2011, he released the documentary Quebrando o Tabu that was later adapted to the United States and Europe as Breaking the Taboo,. The documentary discusses alternative policies for the failed war on drugs and portrays the former President of Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso as its anchor. The film features statements from Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Paulo Coelho, Dráuzio Varella, Gael Garcia Bernal and four other former heads of state from Colombia, Switzerland, Norway and Mexico. The film caused ample repercussions in Brazil, promoting the debate on media channels, schools and even in the Brazilian Congress, with a memorable speech by Senator Eduardo Suplicy. VEJA Magazine published a 9-page article on the film calling it "a meticulously crafted report made over two years with 168 interviews from relevant personalities" The television show Fantástico of Rede Globo, Brazil's largest TV network, broadcast an eight-minute report on the film and later polled the viewers on the subject. The results were impressive: 57% voted in favor of drug's legalization. Trip magazine published a cover story on the film.

Filmed in 18 cities around the world with the scenery varying from FARC poppy plantations in the Colombian Jungle to Amsterdam Coffeeshops, Breaking the Taboo interviewed various leaders and thinking, including premiers, policemen, inmates and rehabilitated addicts. It was the result of an ample research process with more than 160 interviews. The Newspaper Folha de S.Paulo stated that the film had "A consistent argumentative route, not necessarily aligned with common sense". The film also had repercussions in the English newspaper The Guardian: "The documentary highlights the perils of debating an issue so clouded by ideology and calls for an end to the stigmatization of the debate. It boasts the support of several former world leaders including Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter."

Breaking the Taboo was first released in Brazil in 2011. The documentary was adapted for the American and European markets in partnership with the production house Current Sponge, led by Sam Branson, son of the entrepreneur Richard Branson. The English version was released on December 7, 2012 via YouTube for a one-month online run and is no longer available.[4][5] An addendum to the end of the film notes the passage of laws legalizing cannabis in the US states of Washington and Colorado.

In 2012, Andrade participated in the initiative "Colors for Love", a project of the Italian magazine Colors. He directed and served as DP of the short film "Cine Rincão". The movie tells the story of Paulo Eduardo who after being shot in the chest went on to study film at the Criar Institute - an NGO that teaches film related skills to low income teenagers - and built the community movie theatre Cine Rincão. Lucas Lima and Caetano Veloso were responsible for the movie's soundtrack.

In 2014, Andrade directed his first fiction feature film, called Na Quebrada (In the Hood), in partnership with Globo Films. Based on true events, the film tell the story of a group of low class young people, as Júnior, talented TV fixer, Zeca, who witnessed a brutal slaughter, Joana, a girl who dreams with her unknown mother and Gerson, whose father is in prison since he was born. Between stories of loses and violence, they discover a new way to express their ideas and emotions: the cinema.

Recently Fernando directed some of the episodes of the Carcereiros series, in a co-production between Spray Filmes, Globo and Gullane, who won the MIPDrama Screenings 2017. In parallel to the series, the director is also working on a documentary called Vida de Carcereiro, which served as a research to the development of the series.

Advertisement

Andrade directs advertisement campaigns through his company Spray Filmes. Recently, he was in charge of the Coca-Cola Christmas campaign in Brazil. The four-minutes short film went on air on Globo's (Brazil´s major network) prime advertising break - the first campaign to do so in 10 years - giving credits to the director on screen . In 2014 Andrade received a Silver Lion in Cannes Advertising Festival for the Billboard Radio Pride Campaign. In 2013, Fernando received 2 Gold Lions and 5 Bronze Lions for the Kombi Last Wishes Campaign. In 2009 he filmed for Almap BBDO the Open Cage campaign for the launch of the EOS convertible, an interactive film mixing 3D techniques with helicopter shots. The campaign received Gold awards at the FIAP and Wave Festival awards. In 2010, Andrade directed the Nestlé 90th anniversary campaign. In the same year he filmed the Grafiteiros campaign for the launch of Sprite's new Can art. The campaign was re-edited in the next year for the X films. He also filmed the "Make New Friends" campaign for Mitsubishi and Africa Advertisement Agency and the "Love and Color" campaign for Arezzo, with the support of the art director Giovani Bianco.

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