Luiz Carlos Barreto

Luiz Carlos Barreto (20 May 1928 – 22 July 2026), also known as Barretão, was a Brazilian film producer, director, screenwriter and cinematographer, as well as the father of Brazilian directors Bruno Barreto and Fábio Barreto. A leading figure in Brazil's Cinema Novo movement of the 1960s, he started in film after being invited to work on the production and writing of the 1962 and the cinematography of the 1963 Vidas Secas. Also in 1963, he and his wife, , founded the production company L. C. Barreto Produções Cinematográficas. They were involved in the creation of over 60 films together.

During the 1970s and 80s, at the height of Brazil's military dictatorship, Barreto and his family, unlike other members of the Cinema Novo movement, continued to find commercial success; the film Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, produced by Barreto and Lucy and directed by his son, Bruno, became one of the most popular films in Brazil. Barreto continued to be a leading figure in the 1990s Resumption Cinema and remained active in the twenty-first century.

Early life and career beginnings Luiz Carlos Barreto was born on 20 May 1928, in Sobral, Ceará, the northeastern part of Brazil, He worked on the cinematography of films such as Entranced Earth (1967) It was still subject to censorship, however: according to his daughter, before its release Barreto "spent a week in Brasilia, and convinced... [President Ernesto] Geisel's wife and daughter to watch the film and defend it" to the censors. In 1997, he was awarded an Ordem do Mérito Cultural by the Brazilian Ministry of Culture.

21st century Barreto remained active in the 21st century; he advocated against Jair Bolsonaro's rearrangement of the and subsequent dissolution of the Ministry of Culture. He was the subject of the documentary Barretão (2019) and his work as a photographer during the 1940s and 50s was released in the book Passagem: A Memória Visual de Luiz Carlos Barreto (transl. Passage: The Visual Memory of Luiz Carlos Barreto). His photographs were also displayed in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, and the São Paulo Museum of Art.

He was a fan of the Rio de Janeiro-based football club Flamengo, whose youth section he had played for. In the 1970s, he was a founding member of the Frente Ampla pelo Flamengo. He was hospitalized in Rio de Janeiro on 21 July 2026, where he died the next day of pneumonia. He was 98. In response, Brazillian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva declared three days of national mourning. Garrincha: Hero of the Jungle (1962, producer) Entranced Earth (1967, cinematographer) How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman (1971) (1974, co-directed with Eduardo Escorel) Guerra Conjugal (1975) (1975) Bye Bye Brazil (1979) Memoirs of Prison (1984) (1987) 2000 Nordestes (2000) Lula, Son of Brazil (2009, producer) (2017)

Books