Bio

Photo: Marjorie Sonnenschein

Paola Prestes is a documentarian, a screenwriter and playwright. She studied visual arts and cinema in São Paulo. She made documentaries for communication agencies (mostly Ogilvy) for over a decade and also several experimental short films and videos for galleries and art shows. She wrote, produced and directed two feature documentaries: xFlávio Rangel - A story of the Brazilian stage (2009) and Massao Ohno – Poetry Present (2015).

She has worked as a writer for Rede Globo and her first play, Bata antes de entrar, opened in 2022 at Teatro Aliança Francesa, directed by Eduardo Tolentino de Araújo.

She is a Ph.D. in Cinema, School of Communication and Arts, University of São Paulo. For many years, she was a visiting professor in post-graduate documentary courses at Fundação Getúlio Vargas (SP), Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado and SENAC, also giving workshops at SESC and at the Museum of Image and Sound (MIS) of São Paulo.
Feature documentaries

Massao Ohno, Japanese-Brazilian graphic artist and poetry editor, paves the way for new poets in the 60s´ when he publishes the Anthology of the Newest. He launches, among others, Hilda Hilst and Roberto Piva, redefining not only the horizon of Brazilian contemporary poetry, but the esthetics of graphic art, something visible in books published today by major Brazilian editing houses.

Flávio Rangel – a story of the Brazilian stage is a documentary on one of the most brilliant theater directors of Brazil. Rangel was part of the first generation of theater authors and directors who introduced to the public in the late fifties a truly Brazilian way of making theater, with plays that reflected Brazilian reality and its social and political dilemmas.

Short

Video for the 2022 exhibit of Yoshino Mabe.

Video for the 2022 exhibit of Kazuo Wakabayashi.

Videoinstallation with artists who participated in the residence program that FAAP has at the Cité des Arts, in Paris (Annual Art Show, Salão Cultural, FAAP, 2008/2009).

Poetic documentary on people who meet to dance everyweek in a São Paulo ballroom.

Documentary on visual artist Iran do Espírito Santo and his exhibit at the Estação Pinacoteca, in São Paulo, 2007.

Shot during the rehearsal of a São Paulo samba school, a short on the blue side of samba.

Poetic documentary on the city of São Paulo. A subjective camera registers life unfolding on the streets of São Paulo through a car windshield, which works as a cinema or TV screen.

A conversation on sex of rare honesty that took place during the 6º Gay pride Parade of São Paulo. King, (a real person or a character?) leads the way.

Shot during the setting through the opening of São Paulo Commemorative Art Biennale. Three simultaneous projections show workmen and artists setting the show, and artists and show visitors commenting contemporary art.

Women of different social classes and age groups discuss marriage, sex, children and work.

This short is a visual concept on the notion of citizenship. It was shot during the 5º Gay Pride Parade of São Paulo.

Plays



Peça Teatral
Estreia: 30 de julho de 2022
Teatro da Aliança Francesa

Direção: Eduardo Tolentino de Araújo
Elenco: Clara Carvalho, Norival Rizzo, Karen Coelho e Victor Hugo Sorrentino
Produção: Ariel Cannal

Sinopse:
Uma noite, o inesperado reencontro de uma família desfeita deflagra uma discussão que deveria ter acontecido há muito tempo.

"...a formulação de cada frase em si, o ritmo, o vocabulário empregado num equilíbrio perfeito." (Luiz Gonzaga Fernandes)



Photos: Ronaldo Gutierrez

Contact us

paola@serenafilmes.com.br

Cel. / Whatsapp +55 11 991571793

serenafilmes © 2019 paola@serenafilmes.com.br - website: homembala