Petra Costa


Petra Costa is a Brazilian filmmaker and actress whose work lives on the borderlines of fiction and nonfiction. She has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 2018.
In Petra Costa's work the personal and the political are inextricably linked. Her latest film, the Academy Awards Nominated documentary The Edge of Democracy, is a Netflix Original documentary that had its premiere at the opening night of Sundance Film Festival in 2019.
According to First Showing, "the footage she shares is truly jaw-dropping" and shows "an astounding inside look at the recent political shake up in Brazil, examining and showing us directly how democracy is collapsing thanks to political power grabs". It has “all the feel of an All The President’s Men-style political thriller….. with the sweep of The Godfather”, as the ScreenDaily put it. For Point of View, this “political documentary is like none other, a work both intimate and grand in scope".
The Edge of Democracy is the third documentary of a trilogy where Petra investigates her family story. The first, Undertow Eyes, portrays her grandparents recollections and stories, in a personal and existential tale about love and death. It screened at the MOMA in 2010 and won best short Film at the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival 2009, best short film at the London International Documentary Festival, and best short film the 13th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival among others.
The second of the trilogy, Elena, her first documentary feature, is a mixture of documentary, diary and fever dream, and was the most watched documentary in Brazil in 2013. It tells the story of two sisters – and as one searches for the other their identities begin to blur. The film was called “a cinematic dream” by the New York Times, “haunting and unforgettable” by the Hollywood Reporter and was defined as a “masterful debut that takes nonfiction where it seldom wants to go – away from the comforting embrace of fact and into a realm of expressionistic possibility” by Indiewire. Elena premiered at IDFA followed by SXSW and Hotdocs won many prizes such as best film at the 2013 Havana Film Festival, best film at DOCSDF, best directing, editing, and best film for the popular jury at the Brasília Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Cinematography at the 2014 Cinema Eye Honors.
Beyond this trilogy Petra co-directed which "explores with thrilling boldness a space between fiction and nonfiction that I never dreamed possible”, as Joshua Oppenheimer, director of The Act of Killing, wrote. It was reviewed by Télérama as "a reflection without taboos, full of humor and daring, on creation in the broadest sense." Olmo and the Seagull premiered at Locarno where it won the Young Jury Prize. It also won the Best Nordic Dox Award at CPH:DOX, best documentary at the Rio Film Festival, best documentary at the Cairo Film Festival and best narrative at the RiverRun International Film Festival among others.

Biography

Petra Costa was born in 1983 in Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais. She is daughter of left-wing political activists who opposed the Brazilian military dictatorship and the granddaughter of Gabriel Donato de Andrade, one of the co-founders of Andrade Gutierrez, one of the country's major construction companies; directly involved in the corruption and bribery scandal that hit the country in 2015, leading to the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. Costa acknowledges that background in The Edge of Democracy
She started her training in theater in Brazil at the age of fourteen and later went to the Dramatic Arts School at the University of São Paulo. She completed her undergraduate studies Summa Cum Laude in Anthropology at Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, and completed her masters in Social Psychology at the London School of Economics focusing her studies on the concept of trauma.
Back in Brazil, at the age of 24, she began devoting her time to cinema, first as a researcher and assistant editor and director, and then as a director in her own right. Her works are known for their essayistic character, with Petra establishing dialogues between intimate, personal themes and social and political issues.
Her cinematic influences include Gillo Pontecorvo, Agnès Varda, Chris Marker and Patricio Guzmán

Career

Petra Costa debuted in cinema producing and directing the short film , a poetic depiction of love and aging as seen from the perspective of her grandparents. The short was screened at MoMA and scooped numerous awards at Brazilian and international festivals: best short film at the Rio Festival and London International Documentary Festival, best short documentary at the Cine Las Americas International Film Festival and special jury's prize at the Gramado Film Festival, among others.
Her first feature film, Elena, in which Petra revisits New York two decades after leaving it in order to seek out the memory of her dead sister, Elena, was presented at the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival, São Paulo International Film Festival, Brasilia National Film Festival and the Director's Week. The film won dozens of awards, including best documentary at the Festival of Havana, and was the most widely viewed documentary in Brazil in 2013.
As an offshoot to the documentary's success, a series of debates toured cultural and educational centers discussing the issues of suicide and mental health. The Memórias Inconsoláveis competition was part of this drive.
In 2014, Elena was released in the United States with the filmmakers Fernando Meirelles and Tim Robbins as executive producers. That year, the documentary came third in the ranking for average viewership per theater throughout the US and met with critical acclaim. The New York Times described it as “a filmic dream”, while the Hollywood Reporter called it “shocking and unforgettable”. Indiewire claimed it was a “masterful debut takes nonfiction where it seldom wants to go – away from the comforting embrace of fact and into a realm of expressionistic possibility”. Indiewire listed it among the best documentaries of the year.
In 2014, the publisher Arquipélago launched the de Petra Costa, with essays on the film, the full script and bonus content seen for the first time.
Petra Costa's second feature documentary emerged from an invitation from the Copenhagen International Documentary Festival to co-direct a film with the Danish filmmaker Lea Glob. Together, they decided to explore real lives through the fictional structure of Olmo and the Seagull. The film follows Olivia and Serge, actors with the Théâtre du Soleil, who are expecting a baby. The pregnancy turns into a rite of passage, forcing the actress to confront her darkest fears. Olivia's desire for freedom and professional success, the limits imposed by her own body, and her image as a person are just some of the themes the film explores.
Olmo and the Seagull premiered at Locarno, where it won the Jury's Young Director's Prize. It also won the Best Nordic Dox Award at CPH:DOX, best documentary at the Rio Film Festival, best documentary at the Cairo Film Festival and Best Narrative at the RiverRun International Film Festival, among other accolades.
At one of the film's first screenings in Brazil, Petra Costa defended women's right to autonomy over their bodies and the decriminalization of abortion, and her comments stirred up quite a controversy. In order to dialogue with the criticism she received, Petra created the “” social media campaign, which was seen by 13 million viewers on Facebook and YouTube.
Her next project began with coverage of the marches for and against the impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff in 2016 and grew into the feature-length documentary The Edge of Democracy. The film is a Netflix Original production and was released worldwide on June 19, 2019. The documentary combines the personal and the political in order to explore one of the most dramatic and turbulent moments in Brazilian history. With ample access to presidents Lula, Dilma and Bolsonaro, the director also revisited her own family history in an attempt to understand the schismatic state her country had fallen into.
The Edge of Democracy premiered on the opening night of the Sundance Film Festival 2019 and was selected for screening at various other international festivals, including CPH:DOX, True False, IndieLisboa, Sheffield and Rooftop Films. The film was a critical success. “An absolutely vital documentary, according to the New York Post, “a vast and petrifying documentary” for Variety, while ScreenDaily described it as a “political thriller with the feel of an All the Presidents Men and the sweep of the Godfather”. For NBC News, the film throws the doors open on “incredible behind the scenes access to politics”. “The images are jaw-dropping”, said the site Firstshowing.net, while Point of View labelled it " like no other, a work both intimate and grand in scope".
Petra Costa ranked among Variety's 10 documentary filmmakers to watch in 2019.

Filmography