Daniela Broitman

Daniela Broitman

Fellow: Awarded 2007
Field of Study: Film

Competition: Latin America & Caribbean

Born in São Paulo, Brazil, Daniela Broitman is an independent filmmaker.  After receiving a bachelor’s degree from the Pontifical Catholic University in São Paulo, she worked from 1989 till 1996 as a reporter for various Brazilian publications, including Folha de S. Paulo and O Estado de S. Paulo, two of the country’s leading newspapers.  She was part of the team that created O Estado de S. Paulo‘s supplement Zap!, which won the Esso Award for Journalism in 1996. In 1997, she moved to California, where she worked as a reporter, producer, and editor for the Berkeley news program CNS News and as a video and content editor for the websites Streetspace and Looksmart while earning her master’s degree in journalism from UC Berkeley.  She then moved to New York City, where she studied production and digital video at New York University.  In 2003 she received a grant to complete her first full-length documentary, A Voz de Ponta: A Favela Vai ao Fórum Social Mundial (Voices from the Edge: The Favela Goes to the World Social Forum), which she coproduced and codirected;  the Brazilian Studies Association (BRASA) honored her with its Excellence Award for this film.

Daniela Broitman is the founder, director, and producer of VideoForum Films, a socially minded audiovisual enterprise.  Her second documentary, a 2007 VideoForum film called Meu Brasil (My Brazil), was critically acclaimed at film festivals around the world.  It was named best documentary and won the Audience Award at Cinesul—14th Ibero-American Film and Video Festival; was an official selection of the 31st São Paulo International Film Festival; and was invited to screen at the 9th Encounters South African International Documentary Festival, For Rainbow, and Festival della Creativita.  During her Guggenheim Fellowship term, she undertook work on a film about musician and social activist Marcelo Yuka.

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