Hey Steemit!
My name is João Leitão and I’m a writer/director.
My first feature film, “The Portuguese Falcon” (“Capitão Falcão” in my home-country) was a martial arts parody about the fascist military dictatorship we endured in Portugal for 50 years.
It’s also a comedy about anti-communist paranoia, socialist wizards and kung-fu feminists.
Also... Fascist Portuguese Power Rangers.
Despite our silliness, our small indie project travelled the World to dozens of film festivals and was the most awarded film of its year by the Portuguese Film Academy (kinda like the Oscars, but no one actually cares).
It started off as a TV series (trailer with english captions here) and a few years later turned into a feature-length film (trailer here and here). I’ll write a post about that whole shitstorm of a process if you guys think that’s interesting.
Oh, there’s also another international trailer (with english subs) that I don’t particularly like right here.
Some cool coverage we got out of it:
Reuters: "Superhero confronts Portugal's fascist past with satire"
ScreenAnarchy: "Battling Marxists, Feminists And Communist Ninjas To Keep The World Safe For Fascism! Check The CAPTAIN FALCON Trailer Now!"
I first started as a writer/director with a ultralowbudget TV series called “Um Mundo Catita” (pictured above) back when I was 22 years old. I had no experience and absolutely no inside knowledge of how TV worked, so I decided to shoot the whole thing first and worry about the rest later.
In 2008 we shot the entire 6 part mini-series with our own money and then, to my surprise, actually sold it afterwards. In retrospect it was an insanely irresponsible manoeuvre that shouldn’t have worked but it’s what got me started in the business.
You can watch a trailer here but I’m afraid it’s not english-subtitled. I’ll upload a proper english-subbed version on D-Tube soon enough!
It’s a semi-autobiographical comedy about a well known Portuguese musician (Manuel João Vieira) that decides to run for president with the help and guidance of a dead friend’s ghost. It’s also a musical.
Before shooting my feature, I also made an award-winning short film called “The Great Monteleone” (pictured above).
You can watch it here but I'll also be uploading it to D-Tube as soon as possible.
It’s a very personal project because it was the first time I ever got an award (validation when you think you’re a fraud is pretty neat!) and also the first time something I wrote got me travelling the international film festival circuit.
OTHER THINGS I’VE DONE:
- I co-wrote another feature film called “Patrick” that’s currently in production and will be directed by Gonçalo Waddington this year (he co-wrote it and it’s based off his original idea).
- Currently writing what I hope is my next feature as a director.
- Currently trying to write a musical because I can’t stop listening to Hamilton.
- My production company (www.individeos.com/ www.infilmsportugal.com) does production services helping out foreign crews shoot whatever they need in sunny Portugal.
- I was also very lucky to have co-produced a few documentaries, short films and music videos by some great friends over the years.
- Random freelance work as copywriter and english/portuguese translator over the years.
- An extensive retro game and comic book collection.
- Currently addicted to Monster Hunter World, Overwatch and PUBG.
Why Steemit?
My facebook posts used to get thousands of likes/shares and it’s been slowly dying off with their crappy newsfeed algorithm. My good friend 
Writing calms me down (anxiety; impostor syndrome; insomnia; the works!) and this seems like a pretty easy-going community.
This is me looking vaguely artistic, when in reality I'm just sitting inside an unwashed car.
