Newly‑awarded Physics PhD and film director: the unlikely path of Rodrigo Braz Teixeira

He has just defended his PhD in Physics at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (Ciências ULisboa), but for a long time he has divided his life between scientific research and filmmaking. A self‑taught filmmaker, Rodrigo Braz Teixeira began making films as early as the 5th grade and gradually developed his own cinematic language, with works already screened at festivals, as happened recently at IndieLisboa 2026.

Throughout the path he has followed, science and cinema have moved in parallel. Now that he has completed his doctorate, he wants to bring the two worlds definitively closer together. He believes that cinema can be a powerful tool for communicating science, and that science has stories that deserve to be told.

Cinema entered your life before science. How did this adventure begin? Without a doubt. Cinema came first. I started filming back in the 5th grade. I had a friend who really wanted to be an actor and, since I still didn’t know what I wanted to do, I began filming him. At the beginning it was just a game. We experimented a lot and made new films. Science appeared later, already in secondary school, when I had to choose an area of study.

Why Physics?

It was a difficult decision. I loved reading and considered going into Humanities. I also thought about the arts. Then I felt that, to be a scientist, I needed to study. Cinema, on the other hand, seemed like an area where I could learn by doing. What attracted me most to Physics were the questions. They seemed to me the most fundamental questions about how the world works. I still feel that today. I wouldn’t say I’ve found many answers, but I certainly have better questions.

You never attended a film school. How did you build your path as a director? I learned to make films by making films. We evolved through practice, mistakes and the films we watched. We also grew up at a time when it was relatively easy to experiment, shoot and edit in digital format, which helped a lot. Today I still work very much by intuition. Of course, I learned technique over the years, but that learning always came from experience. I think that ended up shaping my cinematic language. One of the first comments made about my films was precisely that they didn’t look like works coming out of a film school. I eventually took that as a compliment.

You have just defended your doctoral thesis. What have you been researching in recent years? My research focused on so‑called complex liquids, seeking to better understand the behaviour of the liquids found inside cells. We used models inspired by neural networks to study how these systems process information. It is essentially fundamental research, but it may contribute to a better understanding of phenomena associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. More than finding immediate answers, the aim is to understand how these mechanisms work and to create knowledge that may be useful in the future.
For a long time, science and cinema ran in parallel for you. Do you feel that the moment has come to bring these two worlds closer together? Yes. For many years they were two completely separate areas of my life, but now I feel the need to bring them together. The next film I want to make stems precisely from that desire. I would like to tell a story set in the scientific world, showing researchers as they truly are. I have the feeling that this universe is still under‑represented in cinema and, when it does appear, it is not always portrayed accurately. Science is full of great stories and very interesting people. I think there is still a lot to explore.

Do you believe science struggles to communicate with society?

I think so. Many times, it is easier to communicate our research to those who work in the same field than to people who have never had contact with these topics. This means that knowledge circulates mainly within the scientific community. But knowledge only gains real value when it manages to reach people. It is a difficult exercise, because communicating science requires simplifying without losing rigour. It is not always easy to find that balance, but it is an essential challenge.

Can cinema help overcome that challenge?

I believe it can. Cinema can communicate complex ideas through stories and emotions. It is a language that brings people closer to subjects that might initially seem distant. At the same time, I also think that art can benefit from science. Today, extraordinary knowledge is being produced that can inspire new narratives and new ways of looking at the world. Science and cinema have much to learn from one another.

In your view, is there a lack of dialogue between those who do science and those who communicate it?

I think so. Scientists are trained to deepen knowledge and to answer very specific questions. They do not always have the opportunity to learn how to communicate that knowledge to different audiences. On the other hand, those who communicate it do not always master scientific topics, and this can lead to excessive simplifications or even incorrect interpretations. I think it is precisely on that bridge between the two worlds that I would like to work.

Will your next film be the meeting point between Physics and Cinema?

I hope so. For many years I felt I had two parallel lives: one connected to scientific research and another to cinema. Now I would like them to stop being separate paths. I have finished my PhD and I am entering a new phase. I want to remain connected to science, but I would also like to be able to make a film with public funding and a larger team. Above all, I want to make cinema that reflects what I have learned as a researcher. If I manage to bring these two worlds closer together, I feel I will finally be uniting the two passions that have accompanied me throughout my life.