Leonardo Pirondi Movies, TV Shows, and Filmography
Leonardo Pirondi
Directing
Biography
LEONARDO PIRONDI (b. São Paulo, Brazil, 1999) is a Brazilian-Portuguese filmmaker and artist. His films create and inhabit alternate worlds that blur the lines between reality and fiction, challenging conventional storytelling structures. Pirondi's films have screened internationally at festivals such as the Toronto International Film Festival, Tiger Short Competition in Rotterdam, New York Film Festival, Viennale, Slamdance, Mar del Plata, IndieLisboa, FICUNAM, BFI London, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Edinburgh, Melbourne, Oberhausen, and Media City among others. His work has been presented in art centers such as the Museum of Modern Art Rio de Janeiro, CCCB in Spain, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and REDCAT. He has had solo shows at Galeria Mola in Portugal and Spectacle Theater in NYC. Some of his films live in the Cinematheque of the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, UCLA Film & Television Archive collection, James Baldwin Library at MacDowell, and The Film-Makers' Coop. in New York City. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in film from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2025, is a Sundance Institute Fellow, and was awarded a MacDowell Fellowship in 2025. His work has been featured in publications such as ARTFORUM, Filmmaker Magazine, MUBI Notebook, Senses of Cinema, Talking Shorts, and InReview Online. His short and feature films have been supported by the Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual of Portugal (ICA), the Locarno Residency, Projeto Paradiso, the Allan Sekula Social Documentary Fund, San Diego Underground Arts, and the Tim Disney Prize for Excellence in the Storytelling Arts. He is a programmer for the Climate Film Festival NYC and is part of the board of directors and selection committee for Badam Film and its film development fund.
Filmography Movies
Acting
Vision of Paradise
The great voyages to the "New World" were seen as expanding the frontiers of the visible and displacing those of the invisible, therefore maps from that time render the real and imaginary. The film follows a voyage of the Brazilian Military in search of an imaginary island with the same name as their country. In the myth from 1483 Brazil, or Hy-Brazil, is known to exist to the west of Ireland and above the Fortunate Islands. Visão do Paraíso is an examination of the capacity of the human imagination and computer simulations to construct environments. Amidst the fine threshold of the real, simulated, and imagined, the film analyzes the contemporary ideas of virtual reality and their ambition to expand the frontiers of the physical world into a "New World".
Benning's Dream
an excerpt of a conversation between James and I during the Fall of 2019 - Santa Clarita, CA
Memoirs Found in a Bathtub
In Stanislaw Lem's book of the same title, a paper-destroying blight obliterated much of Earth's written history—except for what's in the book. In this film, we look at a similar but unmarked future, perhaps one less distant than Lem's 3140s. Amid the rubble of an uncertain setting, the narrated soundtrack reads from the last surviving parts of some bound pages, perhaps a reporter's notebook, a dream diary, or a book manuscript.
Production
Vision of Paradise
The great voyages to the "New World" were seen as expanding the frontiers of the visible and displacing those of the invisible, therefore maps from that time render the real and imaginary. The film follows a voyage of the Brazilian Military in search of an imaginary island with the same name as their country. In the myth from 1483 Brazil, or Hy-Brazil, is known to exist to the west of Ireland and above the Fortunate Islands. Visão do Paraíso is an examination of the capacity of the human imagination and computer simulations to construct environments. Amidst the fine threshold of the real, simulated, and imagined, the film analyzes the contemporary ideas of virtual reality and their ambition to expand the frontiers of the physical world into a "New World".
If a Tree Falls in a Forest
Set in the landscapes of Los Angeles, this hybrid documentary seeks to explore harmful cyclical occurrences that exploit natural resources and bring us closer to extinction. Following the discovery of a mysterious metal structure in the desert, this film documents the encased objects found within the structure. This film is made up of speculative recreations of the study conducted, analysis of the found objects, and surrounding landscapes.
A Thousand Years Ago
An imaginary look back at the present and distant past from the point of view of the year 2049. The return of an exile to Los Angeles decades after social and environmental collapse. He recreates the memories of his past (our present), and imagines the lives of those who inhabited his old apartment when he was gone. His sense of displacement elicits a meditation on place, memory and dream.
If a Tree Falls in a Forest
Set in the landscapes of Los Angeles, this hybrid documentary seeks to explore harmful cyclical occurrences that exploit natural resources and bring us closer to extinction. Following the discovery of a mysterious metal structure in the desert, this film documents the encased objects found within the structure. This film is made up of speculative recreations of the study conducted, analysis of the found objects, and surrounding landscapes.
If a Tree Falls in a Forest
Set in the landscapes of Los Angeles, this hybrid documentary seeks to explore harmful cyclical occurrences that exploit natural resources and bring us closer to extinction. Following the discovery of a mysterious metal structure in the desert, this film documents the encased objects found within the structure. This film is made up of speculative recreations of the study conducted, analysis of the found objects, and surrounding landscapes.
Effulgent Gleam
A cave named 'Gruta de las Pesadillas' was known to be a place whereby entering the cave with a torch or lamp, you would see your darkest nightmares reflected onto the shiny minerals from the inside. I was given access to a written document describing the experience of a man at the cave in 1914. He writes about leaving his house, going to the cave, and his experience there—This film is a visual and sonic recreation of the described event.
Vision of Paradise
The great voyages to the "New World" were seen as expanding the frontiers of the visible and displacing those of the invisible, therefore maps from that time render the real and imaginary. The film follows a voyage of the Brazilian Military in search of an imaginary island with the same name as their country. In the myth from 1483 Brazil, or Hy-Brazil, is known to exist to the west of Ireland and above the Fortunate Islands. Visão do Paraíso is an examination of the capacity of the human imagination and computer simulations to construct environments. Amidst the fine threshold of the real, simulated, and imagined, the film analyzes the contemporary ideas of virtual reality and their ambition to expand the frontiers of the physical world into a "New World".
Vision of Paradise
The great voyages to the "New World" were seen as expanding the frontiers of the visible and displacing those of the invisible, therefore maps from that time render the real and imaginary. The film follows a voyage of the Brazilian Military in search of an imaginary island with the same name as their country. In the myth from 1483 Brazil, or Hy-Brazil, is known to exist to the west of Ireland and above the Fortunate Islands. Visão do Paraíso is an examination of the capacity of the human imagination and computer simulations to construct environments. Amidst the fine threshold of the real, simulated, and imagined, the film analyzes the contemporary ideas of virtual reality and their ambition to expand the frontiers of the physical world into a "New World".
Vision of Paradise
The great voyages to the "New World" were seen as expanding the frontiers of the visible and displacing those of the invisible, therefore maps from that time render the real and imaginary. The film follows a voyage of the Brazilian Military in search of an imaginary island with the same name as their country. In the myth from 1483 Brazil, or Hy-Brazil, is known to exist to the west of Ireland and above the Fortunate Islands. Visão do Paraíso is an examination of the capacity of the human imagination and computer simulations to construct environments. Amidst the fine threshold of the real, simulated, and imagined, the film analyzes the contemporary ideas of virtual reality and their ambition to expand the frontiers of the physical world into a "New World".
Benning's Dream
an excerpt of a conversation between James and I during the Fall of 2019 - Santa Clarita, CA
Gallery
