Fernanda Faya
Filmmaker, Director, Producer
Fernanda Faya
is a filmmaker, director of photography, and curator born and raised in São Paulo, currently based in Brooklyn, New York.Across fiction and nonfiction, her work foregrounds female and queer perspectives, centering stories on the brink of disappearance.
Recent Work
Cultural Program
Founder, Program Director, Curator
United States, Recurring
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Re-Exist in the Present, Imagine the Future.
A multidisciplinary event celebrating Indigenous filmmaking as cultural resistance and decolonial expression. Held across various New York institutions, the aim of this programming is to spotlight Brazilian Indigenous audiovisual and foster a dialogue with global Indigenous cinemas. Through screenings and expert-led discussions, the program examines how filmmakers reclaim narrative agency and assert ancestral knowledge through unique aesthetic and political lenses. The program amplifies Indigenous voices and expands discourses in film, anthropology, and media activism.
Juana Suárez
Marina Bedran
Carolina Canguçu
Wewito Piyãko Ashaninka
Past Participants
Amalia Cordova
Fabio Andrade
Sueli Maxakali
Cultural Program
Founder, Program Director, Curator
United States, Recurring
Documentary, 72 min
Director, Writer, Producer
Sancho Filmes/Temporal Filmes, Brazil, 2023
Neirud
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Neirud died shrouded in mystery, leaving behind no trace of her past. Confronting family secrets, Fernanda pieces together the life of her enigmatic aunt, who toured Brazil as a wrestler in an underground all-female circus troupe throughout the 60s and 80s. As she investigates Neirud’s controversial ring persona, Gorilla Woman, the filmmaker uncovers a taboo-breaking love story, revealing the surprising nature of Neirud’s role in her own family.
Documentary, 72 min
Director, Writer, Producer
Sancho Filmes/Temporal Filmes, Brazil, 2023
Documentary, 12 min
Director, Producer, Cinematographer
Temporal Filmes, United States, 2016
One For The Road
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As she moves from Brazil to NY, the filmmaker looks back at her grandma's migration as a way to find traces of her own identity.
Documentary, 12 min
Director, Producer, Cinematographer
Temporal Filmes, United States, 2016
Cinematographer, Assistant Director
Director: Desmond Picotte
Feature Documentary
United States, In Development
In Detroit, a group of elder trans women, many of whom came out later in life, gather for a long weekend of joy, connection, and visibility.
During these festive events, known as “Invasions,” they move through the city together, finding safety in numbers and celebrating their identities in public spaces that once felt inaccessible.
What begins as a party becomes a powerful act of solidarity, offering a rare glimpse into a chosen family forged through resilience, laughter, and the shared pursuit of living authentically.
The Ladies
of the Midwest
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Feature Documentary
Cinematographer, Assistant Director
Director: Desmond Picotte
United States, In Development
Director, Cinematographer, Producer
Documentary, 15 min
United States, In Post
Alone Together
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In a seniors' house in Queens, elders of different nationalities find distinctive ways of facing and coming to terms with the challenges of aging and death.
Documentary, 15 min
Director, Cinematographer, Producer
United States, In Post
Writer, Director
Fiction
Substâcia Filmes, In Development
Bete
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An elderly professor tries to get around absurd situations in a collapsing country while trying to keep her job to pay for her mother's funeral.
Fiction
Writer, Director
Substâcia Filmes, In Development
Fernanda’s debut feature, Neirud (Temporal Filmes, Sancho Filmes), premiered at Olhar de Cinema – Curitiba International Film Festival, where it won Best Film and Best Editing. Since then, the film has received numerous awards at various international festivals. Her first short, One For The Road (Temporal Filmes, 2017), premiered at DOC NYC and screened at festivals including FIDBA (Buenos Aires), EDOC (Ecuador), and the Rhode Island International Film Festival.
Her MFA thesis film, Alone Together (currently in post-production), offers an intimate portrait of elderly immigrants in a low-income residence in Queens and was honored with the “Excellence in Film” award from Hunter College’s Advisory Board.
She is currently developing her first fiction feature, Bete, supported by a development grant from SpCine in 2022.
In addition to her creative work, Fernanda is the founder and director of (Re)Exist, a curatorial initiative dedicated to showcasing Indigenous film production from Brazil and fostering dialogue with Indigenous audiovisual practices from other regions. The program foregrounds Indigenous authorship and cinema as decolonial tools—vehicles for resistance, cultural continuity, and alternative ways of seeing and organizing the world. Each edition features films by Indigenous filmmakers and includes multidisciplinary panels that deepen critical engagement with Indigenous cosmologies, aesthetics, and political struggles.
Fernanda teaches Cinematography at Brooklyn College (CUNY) and has taught Cinematography for Directors at the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema. She is a member of the Brazilian Collective of Female and Transgender Cinematographers. She holds a BA in Cinema with a concentration in Cinematography from Faculdade Armando Álvares Penteado (FAAP) and an MFA in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College, CUNY.
Let’s Chat
I’m open to working together on programming, curation, and film projects.
Updates
08/14/2025
Mark your calenders! Neirud will have its theatrical premiere
on August 14th in São Paulo. Stay updated through @neirud_film.
Neirud Theatrical Release
08/14/2025
October Filming for
Ladies of the Midwest
The Ladies of the Midwest film crew will embark on their 2nd round of filming to document TG Detroit’s fall celebrations. Follow us for behind-the-scenes pics at @theladiesofthemidwest.
08/14/2025
Fundraising Begins for
Re-Exist in the Present,
Imagine the Future.
Fundraising efforts are on for a third edition of Re-Exist The Present, Imagine the Future. Stay updated @indigenous_cinema.