The political and poetic meet in the incisive, richly textured films of Gabriel Mascaro. With an eye for indelible images and a keen understanding of often-invisible social structures, he has emerged in recent years as one of the foremost chroniclers of contemporary Brazil. In a career that’s straddled both documentary and narrative, Mascaro has probed his country’s class divisions, changing landscapes, and sexual norms—always with a fearless intellectual curiosity and a sensuous visual palette. On the occasion of his stunning new film, Neon Bull (a 2016 New Directors/New Films selection opening at the Film Society on April 8), we revisit the work of one of international cinema’s most exciting new auteurs.

Organized by Dennis Lim.