Before We Squeak

Hi, I’m Gil — a Portuguese trans woman, director, and animator, working across film, animation, and design. With a background in Cinema, Photography, and Visual Arts, I love to blend digital and handmade to craft stories and images that hit home.

I’ve got a background in Cinema, Photography, and Visual Arts, and I like moving between techniques — from 2D frame-by-frame to live-action, from hand-drawn experiments to motion graphics. I care a lot about storytelling and craft, but I’m also drawn to what’s fragile, weird, and absurd. If it’s too clean, it probably wasn’t me.
My work often explores memory, transformation, time, the subconscious, bodies, and the quiet violence of systems — but it’s never just one thing. I like it when form and emotion meet somewhere strange or ambiguous in the middle.
Been messing around for a few years now.

Some of my public work includes:
● Two short documentaries, including Sensible Soccers: Manoel, which premiered with two awards;
● An animated short, Before We Squeak, selected for three international festivals and broadcast on Portuguese television;
● A live-action short, Pigeon Clay, selected for one international festival and still in distribution;
● And currently in the works: my biggest project yet — a new 12-minute animated short.
I’ve also got more things cooking — animation, fiction, and two new documentaries. I like collaborating, trying new tools, learning as I go, and making things that feel true.
Right now, I work at Canal180 (a TV channel and audiovisual production company), where I direct, edit, and produce original content.