My life is split in fragments — I’ve lived in three different countries (Brazil, Italy, USA) and find myself constantly trying to match different puzzle pieces in order to understand the world and the people around me. Film helps me to do so — it is the vessel through which I learn and teach, process and express, digest and manifest.

Why become a filmmaker when I devoted over 20 years of my life to the creation and depiction of still images? It all comes down to storytelling. It has always been this way. From when I was in elementary school recording endless stories on tape, to my early teens shooting videos with friends in Brazil, to when I started my journal of “movie ideas" in high school, there was no doubt that I would ultimately be a filmmaker.

"Ultimately" took seven years. I first pursued what I did best; what I had always been doing since I was a kid — drawing. Those seven years were not a waste of time. They helped sharpen my visual acuity and storytelling skills, and educated me on how to creatively fill a frame.

All of which came into play with the narrative short film I shot for my graduate thesis project, Sonder. A fantastic cast and crew, a moving screenplay from screenwriters laboring over many drafts of the script for over a year, a heartbreaking eight-month delay in production due to the pandemic, ultimately led to a film that has bestowed with film festival awards throughout the world.