Brazilian Trash-Mouth Cinema Is Alive and Well in the Caxias do Sul Penitentiary

Sady Baby. Photo by Matias Rech de Lucena.

On February 25, 2013, federal police in Caxias do Sul, Brazil, arrested the director Sady Baby and his girlfriend, Patricia, at a routine traffic stop. Sady had been missing since 2008 when police accused him of hiring a minor, who was supposedly his daughter, to play a role in his latest movie, The Director’s Daughter. His arrest was a shock to many, not only because he had been missing for so long, but because there were rumors going around that he had committed suicide by throwing himself from a Uruguay River bridge.

Sady Baby is the stage name of Sady Plauth, the infamous actor and filmmaker who blew up during the decadent boca do lixo ["trash-mouth"] era of Brazilian cinema. The numerous low-budget productions from that time were almost entirely devoted to explicit sex, and Sady was at the forefront. In a twisted way, he represented an expression of Brazil’s deepest feelings. The best way I can describe the mantra of this movement is with a line from one of Sady’s films, Orgy Bus: “Working is for morons. If this country is fucked, then let’s fuck.” His work often pushed the boundaries of sexuality, exploring taboos and controversial subjects like zoophilia, rape, and necrophilia.

When I was around seven, I used to go to Balneario Camboriu in Santa Catarina for summer vacations with my family. Every day, at the edge of the beach, a guy with curly blond hair, a Viking hat, and a G-string thong would get on a megaphone and announce the beginning of an erotic play called Soltando a Franga, which, loosely translated, means “Release the Inhibitions.” Years later I realized that the strange man hosting sexy public theater on the beach was Sady Baby himself.

I wanted to speak to the father of Brazilian smut, so I visited Sady at the Caxias do Sul penitentiary.

Luana Scarlet holds a snake that will be shoved into one of the actors during Sexual Feelings of a Horse.

VICE: The majority of your work was done decades ago, but many of the themes remain taboo today. What’s the creative process surrounding work controversial enough to offend generations of people?
Sady Baby: I watched a lot of movies and always felt like something was missing. I noticed that everyone has a perversion, a fantasy, but they’re ashamed to expose it or talk about it. I started to put that in my work, and it went well. At the time people would stop me in the streets. Some would compliment me and others criticized me, but there has always been an audience for that, you know?

Did you know that you are something of a cult figure in pornography?
I had no idea.

Really?
Yes. A journalist in Sao Paulo is writing a book about my career. It will be released next year, but I never cared for any of that. I’m a simple guy. I’ve always respected people. One of the most important things to me is when someone stops me on the street and says, “Hey, I really like your work.”

I read somewhere that Gio Mendes is writing your biography and the title is Every Pussy Has a Price. Is that right?
Yeah, that’s right. But I don’t go anywhere with a title like that.

Sady doing sexy stuff with Marcia Scarpette near a waterfall in the city of Guararema.

And do you believe that every pussy has a price?
Of course. Let me tell you, if you go out with an escort, you’re going to have to pay. If you have a woman at home, you’re going to have to support her. One way or another, all pussy has a price. That’s what’s in my head. I don’t know if that makes me dumb or not.

Of all the movies you’ve directed, produced, and acted in, which was your favorite?
I liked the first Orgy Bus, but there’s a movie of mine, that never came out, on the internet called Sexual Feelings of a Horse. It was one of the first films I directed, and to be honest, that’s the one I like the most. I put a lot of myself into that movie.

Sady surrounded by a team of beauties in the film Oil Change.

There’s some pretty serious lady-on-horse action in that film. Was it hard to convince the actress to do a scene with a horse?
No. The pay was good, and she was cool with it. I ask every person who comes to work for me, “Do you like this or do you want to do this for money?” The most important thing is to have someone who enjoys it. If she doesn’t enjoy it, then it’s going to come out badly. If she likes it, then she goes into it with lust, and everything has to have lust. If there’s no lust it won’t work.

Specials: Pussy Beef, Fuck Broth, Shit Donuts, Fag Tails.

You were forced to do a lot with little thanks to your small production budgets. What would you do if you had a bunch of money? What would a Sady Baby film with the budget of a Michael Bay movie look like?
Ah, that would be a dream come true. I’d get a good makeup crew, some gorgeous actresses… I’d prepare everything, American style. I’ve already done shows in nine countries, but my biggest dream is to do a movie in my home state.

How do you go about writing your scripts? There is some very memorable dialogue in your films. Is any of that improvised, or do you make the actors stick to the script?
Most of it was improvised, but I was controlling it.

So you’d write a general idea, and then they would improvise?
Yes. I didn’t have a lot of resources. I had few actors, and they were mostly common folk who weren’t very artistic. I decided to go with the improvising so they would let go more. If I had given them a script it would have sounded robotic, so by improvising, it made everything more spontaneous.

What can you tell me about the orgy bus? It was the name of a film, but it was an actual bus too, right?
Yes. I bought a bus in the 90s, fixed it up, got a few actors from Sao Paulo together, and set out to travel. But it wasn’t just hardcore sex—it was a theater piece, like any other. And one thing I demanded was that, to work with me, you couldn’t mess with drugs because that would get me in trouble with the police of the various cities we traveled to. I performed in a chain of theaters throughout Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, and Paraná. Then, when I arrived in Porto Alegre, lots of actors would come to me and ask to participate, so I started to change the lineup. That was a family to me—a pornographic family, but a family nonetheless.

I used to spend summers in Balneario Camboriu, where you performed your exotic play, Soltando a Franga. I remember seeing you on the beach.
Ah, that was fantastic. When I would travel by bus through Rio Grande do Sul, I made a lot of money—enough to build my own theater. The downstairs was sort of a cinema and we had rooms for couples upstairs. I’m not going to mention any names, but a lot of important people frequented that place.

Poster of Sady’s first production, directed by Bozo Alrindo Barreto.

What happened to the theater?
It was going under, so I realized I needed to sell it, but I sold it to the wrong person. I only got 20 percent of what the theater was worth. I lost everything. And so I attempted suicide in 2008. I threw myself into the Uruguay River. I didn’t even know how to swim, but with a joy for life, I saved myself. So I got out and walked to Chapecó, which is about 12.5 miles away, called my girl, and told her I was going to Aparecida do Norte by foot. She decided to come with me. It took us 39 days to get there. Eventually, we took a bus back to Marau, and I’m not ashamed to say that I went to work as a farmhand at a nearby ranch.

What did you do at the ranch?
I was taking care of pigs and cattle, with no practical experience. My girl was with me. After a few months, I went after the man who bought the theater in an attempt to get the rest of my money from him, but I went alone, which was a mistake. The guys jumped me and said, “Either you sign or you die.” Between life and theater, the theater can go. I lost everything. So I went back to the ranch and kept working. I changed names because I didn’t want to talk to anyone asking questions, and then I ended up here because of a checkpoint.

Yeah… What’s up with that story about your daughter having acted in Daughter of the Director anyway? Is that true? The rumor is that she was 17 at the time.
People got it confused. She wasn’t my daughter—that was just the title of the movie. But she was 17. She was emancipated.

From In the Warmth of the Hole.

Do you have a lot of kids?
About 40.

Do you know them all?
Most of them. They’re all of age. I’m friends with all of my exes and I always told them: I don’t like to date. I don’t get involved with anyone. If they want to sleep with me, cool, but I’m always straight with them. None of them ever blamed me for anything.

Don’t you ever want to see your kids?
I do see some of them. If one day I’m a millionaire, I’m going to divide everything among them. I know I did a lot of things wrong, but I never forced anything, never raped anyone. It’s just that this type of profession offers up a lot of women. When I was in the production house in Sao Paulo I banged three or four per day.

Four times a day with different women?
Yeah. That’s normal for me. When I was about to shoot a film I’d select the lineup and then ask them to take their clothes off, and it’d usually go from there. But I was picky. I demanded that the actresses not have sagging breasts, no belly, no cellulite, or stretch marks. If she opened her legs… ah, my friend, then it went in. What am I going to do? It’s life.

Sady with his loyal collaborators.

What type of women do you typically go for?
A big woman with full breasts drives me crazy. If one of them came up to me and said, “I’m gonna give it to you, but after we’re done, you’re gonna die,” well, give it to me and then go ahead and kill me. For women, I would do anything. But after I met my girl 11 years ago—she was 13 at the time—I saw that little nympho and said, “My Lord in heaven, don’t do this to me.” But I couldn’t resist. I’m still with her today. I changed for her. Another thing, I never liked condoms. And if it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t even be here. I would have gotten a disease by now.

Have you ever had an STD test?
I did a year ago, and everything was fine. But I just got lucky. It wasn’t because I took precautions—my wisdom is between the legs.

Back in the altar-boy days.

A lot of people probably wouldn't guess it, but you're a religious man, correct?
Yes, I’m Catholic. One time a lady stopped me in church and asked what I was doing there, since all I like are women. I’ve never disrespected any religion. I always say there are three things that I’ll never change: sex, religion, and soccer.

What are you going to do when you get out of prison?
I’m going to do a circus. There’s a person who’s going to sponsor all of it. He’ll put me on the road with the bus, trailer, and circus. Because I’ve always been an honest person, the headlines will read, “Release Your Inhibitions: The World's Only Traveling Erotic Circus.”

Archival photos courtesy of Gio Mendes.

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