NEIRUD Film Screening, Q&A and roundtable

"Growing up, filmmaker Fernanda Roth Faya knew Neirud as her “aunt,” a family member close to her grandmother. What Faya uncovers after Neirud’s death is a mysterious and colorful life, from her time as a wrestler and circus performer to her secret and complicated love triangle. Neirud is a fascinating story about race and identity, and queer life in last century’s Brazil". – Murtada Elfadl(DOC NYC)

“Brazilian director Fernanda Faya, making her feature debut, explores the secret history of her Aunt Neirud and Grandma Nelly in this personal exploration of family and memory… Mixing archival film and video footage, Neirud alternates poetic lyricism with poignant anecdotes, the net result is a heartfelt ode to the pioneers of the past who have made today possible”. - .

Best Feature Film, Curitiba Int' Film Festival, Olhar de Cinema

Best Editing, Curitiba Int' Film Festival, Olhar de Cinema

Best Screenplay, Mix Brasil LGBT Film Festival

Best Feature Film, Official Jury Pirenópolis Documentary Film Festival

Best Feature Film, Young Jury, Pirenópolis Documentary Film Festival

Honorable Mention, Cleveland International Film Festival

Best Feature Film, Bonito CineSur Film Festival

Best Documentary Film, Queer Lisbon Film Festival

Audience Award, Queer Lisbon Film Festival

Letterbox: https://letterboxd.com/film/neirud/

Instagram: @neirud_film

Fernanda Faya is a filmmaker, director of photography, and educator, born and raised in São Paulo and based in New York. Her work emphasizes female perspectives and centers on stories on the brink of fading into obscurity. She earned her Master's in Film from the Graduate Program in Integrated Media Arts at Hunter College, New York. Her first feature film, NEIRUD, had its World Premiere at Olhar de Cinema - Curitiba Int’l Film Festival, receiving Best Film and Best Editing awards. After its International Premiere at DOC NYC the film toured festivals around the world, receiving numerous awards. Fernanda is currently writing her first fiction feature film script, BETE, awarded the SpCine developing fund.

Fernanda is a professor of Film at Brooklyn College - CUNY, in New York, and a member of the Brazilian Collective of Female and Transgender Cinematographers.

IG: @fefa_faya

Flor Barceló is a PhD student in Latin American and Iberian Cultures at Columbia University. They hold a Licenciatura in Letras (BA) by the University of Buenos Aires, where they concentrated on Literary Theory. They worked as research assistant in the Department of Literary Theory and the Department of Feminist Literary Studies and Theories at the University de Buenos Aires.
Their research interests include the construction of queer archives, DIY publications (magazines and fanzines) produced by LGBT+ activists from Latin America and España, subjectivity and grievable lives under neoliberalism, and literature written during the AIDS epidemics.

IG: @__florx

Host or Publisher Department of Film and Media Studies and Integrated Media Arts IMA/MFA program, Hunter College