Luiza Calagian

Biography

Luiza Calagian is a director and Director of Photography from São Paulo, Brazil. Has a degree in Social Sciences and Graduated from the Regular Course in Cinematography at the International School of Film and Television, EICTV - Cuba, where she also took the Masters in Creative Documentary. Her first short film, Ava Mocoi, premiered and was awarded at the 68th Int. Film Festival of Oberhausen, and the second, Anba Dlo, will premiere at the 75th Berlinale. Her work as a director and DOP has also been awarded at Ann Arbor, Kinoforum, and Concordia, and screened at festivals such as Rotterdam, Visions du Reel, Clermont-Ferrand, Biarritz, Guadalajara and Hong Kong, among others. Her first feature film as a screenwriter, director and cinematographer, Arrow for a Stone Heart, is in post production stage, and was made in collaboration with a Guarani Mbya indigenous community from São Paulo, with whom she has worked for over ten years. The project was awarded three public funds from Brazil. Luiza is the founder of the independent São Paulo-based production company Mata Fechada Films. Believes in the craft of cinema as spell, capable of transforming reality and building bridges between humans, nature and spirituality, enchanting the world.