Rodrigo Duque Estrada

Directing

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Rodrigo had his first experience with scripts working as a radio announcer when he was still 17 and living in Brazil. Back then, he had to write the scripts for the programmes he presented, as well as the commercials he advertised during the show. When he entered university to study International Relations, as there was more access to audiovisual media, he began to create scripts and produce some institutional videos for the course and the university. In addition, during the course, although he was very interested in issues related to international politics, he felt that all academic production was very restricted to a small group and that the population didn't have access to it. So he scripted, directed and produced his first documentary with his friend Renatho Costa, about Western Sahara, ‘A Thread of Hope: Independence or War in Western Sahara’, in 2017. Then, while studying for his master's degree, he scripted, directed and produced his first short film, called ‘The things I wrote in the margins of the book you gave me’, in 2019. He also scripted, produced and directed a documentary about the rise of the far right in Brazil and their ambitions to change the country's education system, called ‘Escola sem censura’, in 2018. The documentary was very controversial, as it premiered when President Bolsonaro was in office, and he is one of the main exponents of the far right in the world.