Guto Barra is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist who has been covering the music industry since the mid-1990’s. As a strong emerging voice in Latin American cinema, he was named in 2010 one of the “100 Most Influential Brazilians living in New York”, by “Vogue Brasil”. His acclaimed film BEYOND IPANEMA
was an investigation of the influence of Brazilian music on American culture.

Guto graduated in Journalism at the Catholic University of São Paulo and, in 1993, went on to be a cultural reporter at “Folha de S.Paulo”, Brazil’s largest daily. He eventually became the editor of a daily style section at “Jornal da Tarde”, one of São Paulo’s main newspapers.

He relocated to New York City in early 1997, to run his company Planet Pop (along with Brazilian journalist Ricardo Bairos), which quickly became one of the main entertainment news sources for major Brazilian media outlets such as Vogue Brazil, MTV Brazil, Globo Networks, Terra Networks and many others. He closely followed the wave of Brazilian music in the American market in the past decade and interviewed music and film artists such as the Rolling Stones, Madonna, Prince, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and many others. He also authored articles about Brazilian culture in American and European magazines and produced short films about the aftermath of September 11th in New York City.

In 2003, after producing numerous segments for MTV Brazil, Terra and Globo Networks, he directed his first full-length documentary, “Clash of Cultures”, about the New York Electro scene. Featuring names such as Scissor Sisters Fischerspooner, Ladytron, Miss Kittin and Peaches, the film was acquired by MTV Brazil and released as a DVD+CD package in South America by ST2 Video. It was also shown in numerous film festivals in the United States, South America and Europe. Guto eventually contributed in projects involving some of the artists in the film. He went on to produce and direct TV specials for MTV, PBS and Brazilian network Multishow. He has also worked as Creative Director for the New York production company Snippies.

In 2009, Guto completed BEYOND IPANEMA, a documentary about the repeating cycle of discovery of brazilian music in the world. Through interviews with David Byrne, Devendra Banhart, M.I.A., Os Mutantes, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Tom Zé, Seu Jorge, Thievery Corporation, Bebel Gilberto, CSS, Creed Taylor and many others, the film surveys the Brazilian music experience outside of Brazil. BEYOND IPANEMA had its World Premiere at the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City, and went on to be shown as the centerpiece of the AFI Latin American Film Festival (Washington, DC), at the Chicago International Film Festival and SXSW before traveling through Europe, Asia and South America. The film had screenings at prestigious venues such as Haus der Kulturen der Welt, in Berlin, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, in San Francisco. It has won the Best Film Award at the Brazilian Film Festival of Vancouver as well as Best Documentary and Best Sound at the Brazilian Film Festival of Miami.