S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 It wouldn\u2019t be weird if S\u00e3o Paulo-born Jos\u00e9 Roberto Sadek, a grandson of Lebanese grandparents, had chosen to go down the wordsmithing path when choosing a career, as if the Arab tradition to tell stories had found in him a vessel to manifest \u2013 he went to study journalism in the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP). His PhD from the same institution was about how stories are told in the cinema and how it has served as reference to create Brazilian telenovelas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His most recent book S\u00e9ries e seriados: Para espectadores ligados e desligados tamb\u00e9m <\/em>[TV series for all types of viewers], published by Giostri publishing house, gives information for viewers to better understand and enjoy TV series. The book also explains how the stories are organized, what characteristics retain the interest of viewers for so long, and what to look for in the first episodes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When talking to ANBA, Sadek says he had never connected the Arab tradition of telling stories to his own career path and explains how this came to be. \u201cAs invitations came, I either accepted them or I didn\u2019t. I went to USP\u2019s School of Communication and Arts to study journalism, but people said I should get into cinema, because I photographed well, so I went.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As invitations came, I either accepted them or I didn\u2019t.<\/p>Jos\u00e9 Roberto Sadek<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n And so Sadek went, and as time went by, he says, he became a photographer, then he got tired from photography and became a screenwriter, and later on he was invited to direct a TV channel. \u201cI go because I\u2019m called to.\u201d So, from call to call, he became a creation and production director at TV Escola, carried out special projects for S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s TV Cultura, was series director-general at TVE Rio de Janeiro, held office of secretary for culture of S\u00e3o Paulo state, and coordinated the Governor of the State of S\u00e3o Paulo Award for Culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When he graduated from cinema school, making movies was complicated and expensive, so he and a group of friends established a small production company that participated in public notices, tenders and bids. \u201cWe were ten lunatics \u2013 but we managed to win a bunch of prize money, and that\u2019s how we managed to fund our next short film. It was hard work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We were ten lunatics \u2013 but we managed to win a bunch of prize money, and that\u2019s how we managed to fund our next short film.<\/p>Jos\u00e9 Roberto Sadek<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Sadek also worked at the Roberto Marinho Foundation and TV Globo, where he made films as a cinematography director and later as a screenwriter, and he says he made many episodes of Globo Rep\u00f3rter, a weekly newscast that has aired for 51 years. \u201cBack then, we did TV on film. When I went to TV, within a week I shot more films than in some two years of independent cinema.\u201d Now, among creative projects here and there, the cinema classes at the Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation (FAAP) are the leading activity on his Linkedin<\/a> profile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sadek was a Fullbright student in New York and graduated in architecture from the Mackenzie Presbyterian University, although he never practiced the profession. \u201cI had studied in a religious school where there were only three admissable professions \u2013 doctor, lawyer and engineer.\u201d He chose architecture. He believes he could have been a good doctor and had even considered the possibility but was discouraged by the memories he had from his father, a doctor who died from a heart attack and left him and his two younger sisters orphans when he was 15. \u201cHe told me the life of a doctor was harsh and to neve chose that profession.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The death of his father would have been even more traumatic if it his mother hadn\u2019t step up to ensure the rights of their children. \u201cThose were hard times, family relations were complicated, but my father\u2019s inheritance \u2013 which wasn\u2019t much, though \u2013 supported us. We survived.\u201d Without a father figure, he grew surrounded by women \u2013 mother, sisters, female cousins, aunts \u2013 which he deems a privilege. He is the happy father of two young women and is on his second marriage, and his wife has daughters, too. One of them has recently gave birth to a little girl. \u201cYou know, in parties I usually avoid the male cliques, whose talk is always about money, car and football. Women are much more interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n my father\u2019s inheritance \u2013 which wasn\u2019t much, though \u2013 supported us. We survived.<\/p>Jos\u00e9 Roberto Sadek<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n From the Lebanese grandparents, he has just a distant recollection of his paternal grandfather teaching him to play backgammon. \u201cI’d like to to relearn it, as I have a beautiful board of mother-of-pearl.\u201d His mother\u2019s mother lived in Esp\u00edrito Santo, and in her house the 14 grandchildren from different states came together on summer vacations. \u201cGrandma Alice was very fat, huge, and she used to spend the whole morning rolling kibbehs to feed that crowd that came back from the beach starving.\u201d These cousins don\u2019t meet that often anymore, but they remain in touch with each through a group text thread of which grandchildren, cousins and nephews and nieces want to be part, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fifty years ago, during an unusual period, he went after self-knowledge and discovered and started practicing Tai Chi Chuan. He\u2019s the student of the same master who first brought him into the Chinese martial art, and he now gives classes at his teacher\u2019s gym. \u201cThat\u2019s how it works, the older teach the younger.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read more:<\/em> Report by Paula Medeiros, especially for ANBA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Translated by Guilherme Miranda<\/strong><\/p>\nSadek in cinema and TV<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A son and a grandson<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A grandchild of Lebanese in the garden of Brazil\u2019s Pedro II<\/a>
Arab roots in Brazilian politics<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n