During his school days, he was active in the political affairs of the academic community and became film critic of O Metropolitano, a publication of the Metropolitan Union of Students. While becoming established as a critic and a poet, he began directing film shorts in 1960. With his first feature, Ganga Zumba (1964), the saga of a 17th-century slave rebellion, he asserted himself as a new vital force in Brazil's Cinema Nuovo movement. After the compelling Xica da Silva, he returned to the historical scene of his first film with Quilombo (1984), one of Brazil's most expensive and elaborate productions to that date. His reputation was later enhanced by such films as Subway to the Stars (1988) and Better Days Ahead (1989). He writes his own screenplays, alone or in collaboration.