ABOUT US
UMA FILMES
From what perspective do we explain the world?
We produce authorial documentaries directed by women, with a predominantly female technical and creative team. These films touch our hearts with their courageous, gender-conscious essence and are rooted in a strong social and political commitment. Stories that engage with the present and challenge historical silences.
Motivated by the lack of diversity of perspectives in cinema, we seek to open spaces for reflection from a perspective that is still underrepresented in the industry: the perspective of female authors.
JULIA HANNUD
founder
Julia Hannud is a director of creative documentaries and founder of UMA FILMES, an independent production company based in São Paulo dedicated to authorial narratives and the amplification of women's voices in cinema. She directed the feature films Saudade Mundão (2020) and Carcereiras (2025), selected for Cannes Docs and various international labs such as Campus Latino, Nuevas Miradas and SANFIC Lab.
In addition to her career as a director, Julia has made a name for herself as a producer and executive producer. She worked on The Prison Beauty Contest (2018), by Srdjan Sarenac; Partir (2018), by Sonia Guggisberg, selected for the It's All True festival; and collaborated with Jorge Bodanzky on Amazônia, A Nova Minamata? (2023). She is currently executive producer of the feature films Cá Estamos, Cá Estivemos, by Juliana Serfaty; Cuidado: Substantivo Feminino, by Helena Dias; and Pirsão Mulher - Hoje, by Paula Sacchetta.
Julia is also developing her next authorial project, Salvador, sou eu, a personal documentary about the Syrian diaspora in Brazil based on the story of her great-grandfather. She has a master's degree in Creative Documentary from Pompeu Fabra University in Spain.
I AM ONE, BUT I AM NOT ALONE
SABRINA ZIMMERMANN
producer
She currently lives in Spain and is a partner in the production company Filmes de Pedra, where she produced the short film A Comuñón da Miña Prima Andrea (2021), directed by Brandán Cerviño. The film was distributed by Marvin & Wayne, selected in more than 45 festivals — including IDFA and Hot Docs — and won the award for Best Short Film at the 52nd edition of Visions du Réel, where it had its premiere.
She continues to develop projects in Brazil, between São Paulo and her hometown, Chapecó. There, she produced her first feature film, Queremo Róque! (2021), directed by Jivago Del Claro, shown at the 1st Chapecó National Film Festival and the 14th In-Edit Brasil. She is also the producer of the feature film Carcereiras, by São Paulo director Julia Hannud, selected for Cannes Docs and scheduled to premiere in 2025.
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PAULA SACCHETTA
Scriptwriter and director
Paula Sacchetta has been working as a documentary filmmaker for over twelve years and is a director and screenwriter. She wrote and directed the films Verdade 12.528, released at the São Paulo International Film Festival, and Precisamos Falar do Assédio, released at the 49th Brasília Film Festival. He also directed the TV series “Eu, Preso” and “Famílias”, among others. His short film “Conta pra mim” was released in December 2024 in the Op-docs of The New York Times.
SONIA GUGGISBERG
visual artist and director
A Brazilian of Swiss origin, Sonia Guggisberg lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil. She holds a PhD in Communication and Semiotics from the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC-SP), with a Postdoc at the School of Communication and Arts of the University of São Paulo (ECA-USP) and a Master's degree in Arts from the State University of Campinas (Unicamp).
Guggisberg has worked as an artist, videomaker and researcher, participating in solo and group exhibitions, lectures and workshops in Brazil and abroad since the 1990s. From 2007 to 2013, she developed the project [(I)mobility] about human confinement and the redesign of cities. The result was a series of video installations that generate emotional pressure, opposing the desire to move with its impossibility.
He is currently researching the redesign of identities, human enclosure, borders and walls in different ways. Through artistic interventions in site-specifics, multichannel, video and sound installations, he has developed studies in experimental videographic language for art documentaries and cinema. His work has been seen in the USA, Germany, Mexico, Colombia, Spain, Chile, Bulgaria, Croatia, Malta, France, Denmark, Canada and Portugal.
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JULIANA SERFATY
Scriptwriter and director
She directed the feature film A Summer Film (72 min), about four young people from the outskirts of Rio, which was shown at more than 30 international festivals. It received awards at L'Alternativa (Barcelona), Transcinema (Peru), an honorable mention at Doclisboa (2019), and the female highlight at Mostra de Tiradentes with the Helena Ignez award for editor Cristina Amaral. It was also screened at festivals such as Lincoln Center (NY), Gothenburg, Documenta Madrid, Fidocs (Chile) and Edinburgh, and praised by Cahiers du Cinéma as one of the favorites to premiere in France.
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In addition to the feature, he has directed four award-winning shorts, the children's series Caverna de Petra (9 eps.) and the documentary Back to School (6 eps., Futura). Since 2021, she has been a member of the Sundance Documentary Fund selection committee and is a tutor for DOCSP and, in 2023, FIDBA (Argentina).
She is currently developing the fiction feature Borda do Mundo (development award at Brlab and the only Brazilian film at Cine Qua Non Lab, Mexico) and the script for Refestança, directed by Vinicius Reis for Globo Filmes.
HELENA DIAS
producer, researcher and director
Creative producer, screenwriter and researcher with over 12 years' experience in the Latin American market. With a degree in Radio and Television from UFRJ and a postgraduate degree in Documentary Film from FGV, she is responsible for the original idea, research, script and production coordination of Sementes: Mulheres Negras no Poder (Globoplay).
She worked as a researcher and co-narrator of the podcast A Ditadura Recontada (Globoplay/CBN), based on Elio Gaspari's collection of books and his collection of more than 300 hours of unpublished audio recordings that narrate the main events and backstage of the military period.
Helena was also a researcher on the film Angela (Prime Video), about Brazilian socialite Angela Diniz, nominated for Best International Film at the 2024 Oscars. As a screenwriter, she wrote the documentary series Guató: Uma Remada no Tempo (Globoplay), a finalist in the documentary category at the San Sebastián Festival in Spain.
She is also responsible for the executive production of MAFF Tour Colombia (MAFF TV), a documentary series about underground creators from Bogotá, and acted as local producer on Democracia em Vertigem (Netflix), a documentary by Petra Costa nominated for an Oscar in 2020. She is a partner and director of Sapucaia.
