João Silvério Trevisan (born June 23, 1944 in Ribeirão Bonito,

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

) is a Brazilian author,

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

and

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

. He has published eleven books, including novels, essays, short stories, and journalism, and has also written plays and screenplays. Trevisan has been influential as a literary and cultural critic, particularly on

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

and

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

issues, and his works have been translated into English, Spanish, and German.

Career

Early in his career in 1970, Trevisan wrote and directed a feature film, ''Orgia ou o Homem que Deu Cria'', which was censured by the Brazilian military regime for almost ten years. In 1976, Trevisan published his first collection of short stories, ''Testamento de Jônatas Deixado a Davi''. This was followed by a book for children, ''As Incríveis Aventuras de El Cóndor'', in 1980 and a novel, ''Em Nome do Desejo'', in 1983. He became known as one of Brazil's more important literary figures, noted especially for the quantity and diversity of his work. In 2010, one of his short stories, '' The Secret Friend'', was adapted as a short film directed by

Flavio Alves Flavio Pimenta Alves (born in Rio de Janeiro, 30 November 1969) is a Brazilian writer, screenwriter, and film director resident in America since 1998. His movies consistently feature elderly characters as protagonists. He is best known for the f ...

. The film was shot in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. It entered more than 80 film festivals and won 21 awards, including ''Best of the Fest'' at

Palm Springs International Film Festival Palm Springs International Film Festival (sometimes stylized shortly as PSIFF) is a film festival held in Palm Springs, California. Originally promoted by Mayor Sonny Bono and then sponsored by Nortel,here for Table of Contents it started in 19 ...

, the ''Storyteller Award'' at Savannah Film Festival, and the ''Van Gogh Award'' at the Amsterdam Film Festival.Official site
Screenings & Awards page
June 14, 2011

Literary prizes

Trevisan's best-known short story, ''Two Bodies in Vertigo'', is included in the anthology ''The 100 Best Brazilian Story Tales of the Twentieth Century''. He has won the ''Prémio Jabuti'' three times and the Association of Art Critics of São Paulo (APCA) Award three times, as well as several other honors. Despite his awards and distinctions, his work has been ignored by the Brazilian mainstream media.

Gay activism

Between 1973 and 1976, Trevisan lived in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and in the United States, where he had direct contact with the

gay rights movement Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) movements are social movements that advocate for LGBTQ people in society. Although there is not a primary or an overarching central organization that represents all LGBTQ people and their i ...

. In 1978, he founded ''SOMOS'', the first gay rights organization in Brazil and, in the same year, the first gay news publication, O Lampião da Esquina. In 1982, he started research for his book, ''Devassos no Parais'' (Perverts in Paradise). This was published in 1986, and was at the time the most comprehensive study of the history of homosexuality in Brazil.

Personal life

He currently resides in

, Brazil.

Body of work

;Film, as

screenplay writer A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

* ''Contestação'' (

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

, 1969) * ''Orgia ou o homem que deu cria'' (

feature length A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film ( motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation ...

, 1971) * ''Amigo Secreto'' ( The Secret Friend, 2010) ;Journalism * '' O Lampião da Esquina'' ;Literature * ''Testamento de Jônatas Deixado a David'' (1976) * ''As Incríveis Aventuras de El Cóndor'' (1980) * ''Em Nome do Desejo'' (1983) * ''Vagas Notícias de Melinha Marchiotti'' (1984) * ''Devassos no Paraíso''; also in English: ''Perverts in Paradise'' (1986) * ''O Livro do Avesso'' (1992) * ''Ana em Veneza''; also ''Ana in Venice'' (1994) * ''Troços & Destroços'' (1997) * ''Seis Balas num Buraco Só: A Crise do Masculino'' (1998) * ''Pedaço de Mim'' (2002) * ''O Rei do Cheiro'' (2010) ;Screenplay (adaptations) * ''Doramundo'' by Geraldo Ferraz, directed by João Batista de Andrade (first treatment, 1977) - best film,

scenography Scenography is the practice of crafting stage environments or atmospheres. In the contemporary English usage, scenography can be defined as the combination of technological and material stagecrafts to represent, enact, and produce a sense of plac ...

and director,

Festival de Gramado The Gramado Film Festival () is an international film festival held annually in the Brazilian city of Gramado, Rio Grande do Sul, since 1973. In 1992, the festival began to award Latin American films produced outside of Brazil. It is the biggest ...

, 1978 * ''A mulher que inventou o amor'' by Jean Garrett, (1981) ;Theater * ''Heliogábalo & Eu'' * ''Em Nome do Desejo'' * ''Troços & Destroços''

References