“CEO of Myself” is a Brazilian animated musical short that follows João, a young Black delivery rider who believes he is the “entrepreneur of himself.” Every morning at 5 a.m., armed with watery coffee and a bright orange jacket, he turns the streets of São Paulo into his personal stage, singing about hustle, mindset and self-improvement as if he were the CEO of a one-man company.
Through stylised, theatre-like musical numbers – from rain turning into blue cellophane confetti to cabaret-style policemen dancing under red and blue spotlights – the film embraces the seductive language of meritocracy that surrounds gig-economy workers. Every setback is reframed as “resilience training,” every staircase as “cardio included,” every police stop as “networking” to build a “curriculum in police reports.”
In a quiet, realistic interlude on a highway overpass, João’s friend Jair gently questions this worldview, reminding him that potholes, rain and police do not disappear with “positive thinking.” João, however, clings to the belief that if he just rides harder, one day it will all “turn around.” When a routine night delivery ends in a violent police shooting, the musical spectacle collapses: João lies on the wet asphalt, covered in confetti and siren light, singing a final choro-like lament in which he blames himself for the bullet he took.
Blending satirical song, expressionist sets and documentary-like moments, “CEO of Myself” reflects on the psychological cost of the “be your own boss” narrative in a country marked by racism, inequality and police violence. Created entirely from AI-generated images and voices, the film uses new digital tools to question an old promise: in a system built on structural injustice, how free can you really be when you are “your own company”?