Carla Villa-Lobos Addresses the Different Aspects of Women’s Sexualities

Carla Villa-Lobos

In this profile series, Revry is highlighting authentic contributors to the LGBTQ media and entertainment community. We ask questions to find out who they are and where they are going in the future. The questions remain the same but the answers tell their unique story. It’s time to explore and celebrate true representation beyond the limits of Hollywood. 

Carla Villa-Lobos is a Brazilian filmmaker, born in Rio de Janeiro. Her work addresses different aspects of women's sexualities. She has worked as an assistant director for the past nine year in tv series, features and short films (such as A Wild Patience Has Taken Me Here, by Érica Sarmet). In 2017, while in college, she directed her first short film, MERCADORIA, which has been selected for festivals in Brazil, Mexico and Germany. MC JESS (2018), her second short film, was screened in several countries, mostly at women's or LGBTQ film festivals such as Frameline (USA), Outfest (USA), GAZE (Ireland), Hamburg International Queer Film Festival (Germany), AMOR, (Chile), Cineffable (France) and China Women’s Film Festival. In 2018, she was selected for the 13th Buenos Aires Talents, a meeting of young filmmakers from South America organized by the Berlinale and BAFICI. In 2021 she directed, with Igor Moreira, SATURN RETURN, a comedy web series with LGBTQ characters. She researches, through cinema and visual arts, the creation of new imaginaries and visibilities, and the re-appropriation or reaffirmation of symbols attributed to lesbian women.

What are you best known for?

I guess I am best known for MC JESS, which allowed me to have contact with LGBTQ communities from different parts of the world and also from my country (we have screened the film in many places, including schools), talking about the powers and struggles of being a lesbian woman in Brazil.

What is the first thing you directed?

The first thing that I directed was the short film MERCADORIA, that transits between fiction and documentary language, and was constructed from conversations with six women who work with prostitution at Vila Mimosa, in Rio de Janeiro, and seeks to show their point of view about their work from performances based on their stories.

What are you working on that no one knows about yet?

Now I'm trying to focus a bit on my studies. This year I started a master's degree to study the lesbian identity in Brazilian short films produced in recent years. I'm also assistant director of a children's short film (directed by my wife, MC JESS producer) about lesbian motherhood.