Born in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Fernando has been based in Recife, Pernambuco, for the past 20 years. As a documentary filmmaker, he directed the feature-length film Mother Tongue (2010), featuring musician Naná Vasconcelos, shot in Portugal, Angola, and Brazil. In 2017, he completed the documentary feature In the Name of America about the Peace Corps in Brazil’s Northeast during the 1960s; the film won the award for Best Brazilian Documentary at the 41st São Paulo International Film Festival. Fernando also directed the eight-episode documentary series New Cuba, which addresses themes related to Brazil’s military dictatorship, social movements, agrarian reform, liberation theology, and other issues connected to the 1960s and 1970s in Brazil. In 2025, he released the documentary Abjuration, which received the award for Best Film in the Reframe Section at the 33rd Mix Brasil Festival in São Paulo. Fernando is also a professor of Documentary Film at the Federal University of Pernambuco.