ABOUT
Lucas Estevan Soares
BIOGRAPHY
Lucas Estevan Soares was born in Curitiba in 1990, and spent his childhood and adolescence in Boqueirão AKA #Boquera,one of the largest neighborhoods of the capital of Paraná. In 2007 he began his acting career, joined the theater company Teatratividade and acted in several theater plays in Brazil.
Soares moved to Rio de Janeiro in 2009 and entered the Filmmaking Program at Estácio de Sá University. The following year he directed and scripted his first films: Kabbalah, an experimental mid-length, and the short films Absence of Us and Terminal 2 (subsequently renamed to The Airport Date). With them he participated in local festivals and international festivals such as the Arouca Film Festival 2012 in Portugal and Très Court International Film Festival 2013 in Panama and Romania.
In 2011, Soares emigrated to the United States. In Los Angeles he filmed Passports and Dreams and received a job offer to work in the Philippines, he accepted and moved to Asia.
In Southeast Asia he directed Ends Meat (in Manila), Bojou (Nagoya, Japan) and the documentary From a New Fernando to Brazil (Phi Phi Islands, Thailand).In Oceania (Melbourne, Australia), he filmed Allegories of Us, in which he is the main lead actor.
Lucas Estevan Soares gathered the works Absence of Us, The Airport Date, Passports and Dreams, Ends Meat, Bojou, From a New Fernando to Brazil and Allegories of Us and released a new product, entitled Independent Roads. Between 2012 and 2013 he traveled to countries in Europe, Africa and Latin America showing his films and sharing his ideas and experiences regarding independent cinema and guerrilla filmmaking in various exhibitions and festivals such as the 56th Café Com Filmes (CCFilmes 2012), in Portugal, the 10th Oberá en Cortos Film Festival, in Argentina, and the 12th Mostra do Filme Livre (MFL 2013), in Brazil.
In October 2012, Soares founded in Curitiba the film production company International House of Cinema (IHC). He began producing commercial videos and collaborating with local musicians.
He married Rhaissa Gonçalves in 2014, who became his partner in IHC and also shares with Soares the function of film producer.
Two years later IHC launched the short film Special Delivery, shot in Rome, Italy, by the director Andrea Traina. For his performance he won the award for "Best Short Film Actor" at the Premio Nazionale Musa D'Argento, held in Sicily in 2016. Also in 2016, Lucas produced and directed the documentary Coffee on the Road.
His first musical experimentation happened randomly when French rapper Gwad invited him to record the song "Pas a Plaindre" in 2012, shortly after one of the screenings of Independent Roads in Clermont Ferrand. The song marked the beginning of a parallel musical journey that complemented Lucas' work as a filmmaker. Since then, Lucas has actively participated in the creation of soundtracks for all of his film projects.
His primary musical genre is Hip Hop, but there is also an eclectic Indie/Folk side with influences of MPB that Lucas has been working on and incorporating into his repertoire.
In 2017 they installed in Miami the second HQ of IHC and released two short films directed by Soares in between 2011 and 2012: Twisted Lines, filmed in New York, and Portraits in the Water, shot in Singapore. In 2021 IHC created a film distribution company to mainly market its own productions.
The repercussion of the music video "# Boquera", released in 2018, motivated the beginning of work on an idea that emerged in 2014, the production of a feature film with a singing telegram service car in the center of the plot and the Boqueirão neighborhood as a background.
The film, funded with resources from IHC (without support from public and tax incentive programs) in guerrilla filmmaking style, was recorded in late 2019, with post-production taking place the following year, already during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2022, Soares' first feature, who in addition to directing, scripting and acting also composed and participated in the production of the film and the soundtrack, toured the national and international circuit of film festivals, being well received by general critics (including being called in Cannes "great example of the new Brazilian popular cinema") and awarded in Houston, Moscow and Brazil. Neon Heart made its debut on the Brazilian commercial circuit on March 9, 2023.
IHC | International House of Cinema
International House of Cinema (IHC) is a film production and distribution company focused on producing original films for TV and Cinema. It was founded in Curitiba, Brazil in October 2012 by Lucas Estevan Soares. The company is best known for creating the feature film "Neon Heart".