Nine years ago I was arriving in the US to start a new life. Immigration is a complex and delicate process. It’s a very deep transformation. You have no choice but to let go. It’s a form of death, many deaths. It’s also a rebirth, many rebirths.
Nine years ago I’d start a long process of many consecutive deaths and rebirths. And with it I started to weave and co-create a new reality. With a mix of my deepest fears and many painful challenges that I’ve never expected to face, I began to imagine. And then to believe. And then to create, to write, to direct and to edit my own films to start everything again. But in a totally different way. Before becoming a filmmaker, my professional experience came from my acting career in Brazil: I was always in front of the cameras or on a stage.
My interest in making films started after I arrived in the US: because I didn’t speak English, I could not act. Editing was the first way I found to keep doing my art. My editing process was mostly intuitive.Editing a film for me is like facing a puzzle to be solved. My films started as puzzles.
Then I started to see everything as film material. I started to put my impressions about life and the world, discussing many issues in my films, global issues mirroring my original country. Finally, I started to find a voice, my own voice. And with it I became a filmmaker.
For me, it’s important and urgent to put different perspectives on the screen. Real perspectives. The world needs it. With materials of life experiences, I dig deep into my own sensibility and through my vision as a Latin American woman, immigrant and mother I make these films. Because my films are very poetic and my screenwriting and editing have its own way to conduct the audience, I believe that I’m creating and solidifying my own style.
Initially I started making experimental films. Then, I migrated to making poetic and experimental documentaries. Today I’m transitioning to narrative films and have returned to acting while I'm directing.
I'm finally putting together all the pieces of the puzzle of a career that literally includes nearly four decades in front of and behind the camera.