For more than a decade. Petra Costa has been telling stories in the crossroads between the personal and the political, much focused on the questions of trauma and representation. Her latest documentary, The Edge of Democracy, was nominated for an Academy Award and was listed by the New York Times as one of the best 10 films of the year 2019. It was nominated for several awards and won the Peabody Award, Spirit Awards and best director at DOC NYC.
Petra started her training in theater in Brazil at the age of fourteen and later went to the Dramatic Arts School at the University of São Paulo. She completed her undergraduate studies Summa Cum Laude in Anthropology at Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, and completed her masters in Social Psychology at the London School of Economics focusing her studies on the concept of trauma.
Her first feature, Elena, executive produced by Tim Robbins and Fernando Meirelles and the most watched documentary in Brazil in 2013, is a mixture of documentary and fever dream. The film was defined as a “masterful debut that takes nonfiction where it seldom wants to go – away from the comforting embrace of fact and into a realm of expressionistic possibility” by Indiewire. Elena premiered at IDFA and won many prizes such as best film at Havana Film Festival (2013), Best Film at DOCSDF, and was nominated for Best Cinematography at the 2014 Cinema Eye Honors.