Chica Barbosa is a Mexican-Brazilian filmmaker based in Los Angeles, US. Her artistic practice explores narrative, hybrid and experimental forms of storytelling, with a focus on themes like feelings of displacement, the residuals of colonialism, the visible/invisible borders around us and faith as an act of resistance. Her work has been showcased in film festivals like IDFA, Frameline, Outfest, Guanajuato International Film Festival, Festival Biarritz Amérique Latine, DOC NYC, LALIFF, RIDM, Sheffield Doc Fest, Leeds International Film Festival, Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine-Latinoamericano de la Habana. She also directs branded content and music videos, always looking to work with a diverse team behind and in front of the cameras.
She recently migrated from São Paulo, Brazil, where she was part of the Film Collective “Cinefusão'' and where she started her own production company "En Caliente Films”, since 2014. Through the collective she participated in the “Cineclube Cinema em Revista” bringing encounters of discussion about films, politics and art with educators, theatre companies and independent filmmakers. She directed along with Bruno Mello Castanho FERROADA, a hybrid short film about the Brazilian writer/undertaker named Tico in São Paulo, Brazil. In 2018, she co-directed with Thiago Zanato LA FLACA (The Bony Lady), a hybrid short film about a Mexican transgender woman and leader of the Santa Muerte religious movement in Queens, NY; the film won several awards and entered over 100 film festivals around the world. Also in 2018, she directed in Brazil, along with Bruno Mello Castanho, the feature documentary MADRIGAL FOR A LIVING POET - awarded with best film, best director, best script, best edit and best character at the Festival de Cinema de Triunfo.
In 2020, she directed along with Fernanda Pessoa the short film SAME/DIFFERENT/BOTH/NEITHER, a video correspondence between both the filmmakers living in Los Angeles (USA) and São Paulo (Brazil) - the film premiered in the Short Competition of IDFA - International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and was shortlisted in the IDA Awards for Short Films. In 2022 She premiered the feature documentary SWING AND SWAY, directed along with Fernanda Pessoa, selected to Sheffield Doc Fest, Dok Leipzig, RIDM, among others and had a theatrical release in the fall of 2023 in several cities around Brazil. Also in 2023, she’s selected to the Berlinale Talents as well as the Short Form Station with a new narrative short film called AMAINARY. She is currently developing her first narrative feature to be produced between Mexico and the US. Chica is an alumni of the Berlinale Talents, Talents Guadalajara, Points North Fellowship, Latino Media Market and the Diverse Women in Media Forum Mentorship Program hosted by NALIP - National Association of Latino Independent Producers.
