Biography

José Antônio Gomes Nunes e Silva (1947–1996), better known as Jean Garrett, was a Portuguese-Brazilian actor, producer, screenwriter, filmmaker, and occasional actor. A native from the archipelago of Açores, Portugal, he moved to Brazil to become one of the most well-known directors of the São Paulo exploitation production pole known as Boca do Lixo. Garrett is celebrated for his highly formalist directorial style, ability of mixing erotic appeal with bold themes, and successful approach to various genres. With a career that spanned for 20 years, with over 18 features, Garrett directed noir-esque police stories, thrillers, horror and disaster pictures. By the mid-to-late 1980s, when the Boca do Lixo started almost exclusively to produce explicit pornographic films, Garrett finished his filmmaking career after directing a series of explicit features under the screen credit of J.A. Nunes, a pseudonym that evoked his actual birth name. He died from a heart attack in 1996 – 10 years after his retirement from filmmaking.