Born in São Paulo, Daniela Broitman is a filmmaker, cultural producer, and holds a master’s degree in Journalism from the University of California – Berkeley. She worked as a reporter for the newspapers Folha de S. Paulo and O Estado de S. Paulo and contributed to various magazines. In 1997, she moved to the United States, where she studied Digital Video Production at New York University (NYU), completed her master’s degree, and worked as a video and content editor at startups in San Francisco.
In 2002, she returned to Brazil and began filming in the favelas of Rio. In 2003, she received a grant from the Ford Foundation to complete her first feature documentary, A Voz da Ponta – A Favela Vai ao Fórum Social Mundial. The film was screened at international festivals such as the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema (Havana), the African Diaspora Film Festival (NY), Festival dei Popoli (Italy), among others, and won the Award of Excellence from the Brazilian Studies Association (BRASA).
Drawing on her experience with more than 100 community leaders, she created a social audiovisual project dedicated to marginalized popular communities. She then founded the production company Videoforum Filmes, focusing on social justice and combating racial and gender discrimination. In this field, she wrote, directed, and produced the feature documentary Meu Brasil.
In recent years, she has worked on international documentaries such as Rip! A Remix Manifesto (EyeSteelFilm and the National Film Board of Canada), on HBO’s Witness series (directed by Michael Mann, director of The Insider), and co-produced with PBS’s Frontline/World the documentaries Obama Samba, The Money Tree, and The Carbon Hunters.
Awarded the most prestigious fellowship for the Arts by the Guggenheim Foundation of New York, she directed, produced, and wrote the documentary Marcelo Yuka no Caminho das Setas, which earned Videoforum Filmes the Award for Quality Incentive in Brazilian Cinema (PAQ – Ancine).
