My Portugal Series: Carlos Carneiro
We're excited to close out the summer with our August edition of 'My Portugal,' our newsletter series celebrating Portuguese culture through conversations with friends of Portugalia Marketplace.
Carlos Carneiro is a Portuguese producer, director, and partner at Vacationland. With 15+ years of experience in film production, Carneiro is an Executive Producer who loves a great story while crafting documentary, commercial, and branded projects. In 2020, Carlos directed his first feature documentary, A Wonderful Kingdom, about Portugal’s wine harvest, narrated by Malcolm McDowell (ENG version) and the iconic Simone de Oliveira (PT version). More recently, he directed the three-part docuseries The Curiosity Effect for Roku. When he’s not making films, he’s often found gathering people around a table for a meal and a story.
Portugalia Marketplace: Throughout your career, you’ve created a number of films focusing on storytelling through food, from the Haitian community in Montreal, to a team making traditional Norwegian smoked salmon in London. What is it about food that excites you to craft a narrative around it?
Carlos Carneiro: Food stories have all the foundational elements to make a compelling film: culture, memory, resilience. Food brings people together and reveals how necessity sparks invention. I’m endlessly curious about the process, technique, tools, and flavors that create culinary traditions. I’m inspired by how immigrants go above and beyond to recreate the flavor of “home.” Food is also a visual language—a container for storytelling.
PM: Growing up, what was the food culture like in your family? How does it influence how you create community around food now?
CC: Food wasn’t just nourishment; it was how we came together. My family all lived in the same city, so there were constant gatherings, always centered around a meal. I love how everyone took leftovers home. It wasn’t trendy or curated, it was just how we connected.
As a parent now, it’s a core value. My partner and I talked about what really matters to us, and I said, "We sit down for dinner every night." That’s non-negotiable.
Even as a teenager, when I left home to study abroad, I remember thinking: I’m not doing pot noodles. I’m going to make soup. I’m going to cook like my mom. That impulse to replicate home through food stayed with me, and it quietly shaped how I build community now.
PM: As a documentary filmmaker, you travel around the world, meeting people and giving them a platform to tell their stories. When in your life do you think you first realized you were a storyteller? And how did you decide film was the medium through which you wanted to tell these stories?
CC: At first, I wanted to make films because it seemed cool. I didn’t yet know what stories I wanted to tell, or what my voice was. But I kept studying, sharpening my curiosity, figuring out what moved me.
When it came time to tell my own stories, I paused. I closed my eyes and asked: What is it? What is your thing? And food kept coming back. I made a short film about the Francesinha, then one about a Norwegian guy in London making smoked salmon. I started working with chefs. Then I started getting paid to do it.
So when did I realize I was a storyteller? A few years in, when I stopped chasing someone else’s idea of what stories should be and started creating my own lane, doing the work I felt connected to.
PM: You’ve had the opportunity to work with so many brands throughout your career, including Nike, Patagonia, and Range Rover. What do you find compelling about telling brand stories?
CC: I’m drawn to brand stories because these companies are instantly recognizable, with real legacy and cultural weight. That gives you an opportunity and a responsibility to tell something honest.
Audiences are smart. They connect more deeply when a brand shows how something came to be, not just what it is. For me, it’s never just about the product. It’s about the people, the process, the intention. Tell me a real story and I’ll care. For example, The Curiosity Effect, which my partners and I at Vacationland made with Roku for a financial company, is a great example. It wasn’t about pushing a product; it was about spotlighting people who challenge the status quo. Stories like that move people. They build trust. And for me, that’s the sweet spot: when a brand creates space for something meaningful.
PM: As a Portuguese filmmaker, what are some Portuguese films you think capture the Portuguese filmmaking spirit that should be recognized more widely?
CC: I’m not sure it’s about wider recognition; the films are there if you’re curious enough to seek them out. But there are a few that really capture the Portuguese spirit for me. Pedro Costa’s Blood (O Sangue) is haunting and poetic. Miguel Gomes’s Tabu is another favorite (ofc it is), melancholic and inventive. And I’d also pick João Nicolau’s John From, a film that manages to be whimsical and quietly profound. These films aren’t loud, but they linger. I like that.
PM: Seeing as you are now based in Brooklyn, are there any aspects of Portuguese culture that you’ve incorporated into your day-to-day?
CC: I’ve always cooked, but since becoming a dad, I've cooked a lot more Portuguese food. I’ve gone deep into the dishes my aunties and grandmothers used to make: polvo à lagareiro, cabrito assado, pão de ló. No fear, I went there.
My favorite chef, Nuno Mendes, and his book Lisboa, really helped. I’ve cooked my way through it and gifted it to more friends than I can count. For me, cooking is a way to bring home into the everyday, to share my culture with my kids, not as a lesson, but as a feeling.
PM: Finally, where can our readers follow you to stay up to date with your upcoming projects?
CC: LinkedIn is where I’ve been most active lately, sharing updates and some of the great work we’ve been doing. You can also sign up for the Vacationland newsletter on our website.
Jupiter Skinless & Boneless Sardines in Organic Olive Oil
My daughter’s favorite conservas. You can really taste the quality of the sardines and olive oil. She eats them straight from the tin with crackers.
Portugalia has championed this from the beginning. I love it not only for its quality but also because I know the brilliant Pacifica team who created its beautiful branding.
The centerpiece of a beautiful section in the store, and such a core part of Portuguese culture. It’s phenomenal... we need more cod in our lives!
My personal pick from the incredible cheese selection at Portugalia. Gooey, milky, with just the right tang, the king of Portuguese cheeses.
When I finally visited Portugália and met Michael in person, I discovered this section. I’m smitten with Ana Seixas’s colorful ceramics and have long been a fan of GUR rugs. Great selection, great pieces.
Beautifully curated and dangerously tempting. Sadly for me, you can only buy it in-store or shipped to Massachusetts, otherwise I’d be buying much more from New York. My heart belongs to the Douro section, not just because I made a whole film about it (A Wonderful Kingdom), but because I have family roots in the Douro Valley.