ULISSES NETO

Producer & Director

About

My work is dedicated to telling stories in different formats, media and mediums. I graduated in Journalism in 2006. It was while still at college (UniFIAMFAAM / São Paulo) that I started producing documentaries. My audiovisual career was consolidated years later, however.

First, I ventured to record the factual life through sound. The school was the editorial office of the São Paulo most popular radio station, Jovem Pan. This experience taught me the importance of objectivity in storytelling. During this same period, I wrote special reports for the politics desk of Rolling Stone Brasil magazine.

In 2010, I decided to follow a different path. I bought a Canon DSLR and moved to London to study photography (The Institute, 2011), Documentary and Factual Filmmaking (City University of London, 2012) and cinema lighting (Arri Academy, 2016). The economic situation back home helped and I managed to work for Brazilian outlets interested in mini documentaries about life in Europe. During this period, I was commissioned by Globo TV, TV Folha, Terra and Estadão. The transition to documentary production began at this time as well. My passion for the genre was old - I lacked the technical initiation and understanding of how to tell stories in this way.

At the same time, I found a sophisticated market in London that I couldn't even imagine. I ended up being pushed (with great satisfaction) into producing stories related to athletes. Initially, Brazilian football players with a resumé in the major European leagues were the main characteres. Subsequently, athletes from different sports and countries became subjects of my work as well. I was producer director of short documentaries at the English magazine FourFourTwo, before becoming director of audiovisual content at the American platform The Players' Tribune, best known for producing exciting first-person, high-quality reports featuring high performance athletes.

Also in London, I started producing podcasts in 2013. Among the projects, I highlight the programs dedicated to urban narratives about daily life in the British capital: Londres Real (Rádio Jovem Pan) and Correspondentes Premier (ESPN Brasil), a weekly show about the Premier League that top the charts in Brazil until this day. The focus was on the individual perception of characters and stories in a given context.

Recently, I felt an urge to invest on personal projects, linked to the stories I came to know in the productions I was involved in. Therefore, I founded the production company Maracanã Media. In 2021, I started writing the book "Adriano Imperador, Minha Vida" (provisional title), a memoir by one of the most controversial football players of recent times, scheduled for release on second half of 2024 by the Spanish publishing house Planeta.