Dr. Livia Perez (she/her/ela/dela) is a Brazilian educator, media scholar and filmmaker. Her moving-image practice and research span non-fiction media, Latinx, feminist and queer media history, visual memory, diasporic media history, transnational film, and multimedia. She received an MFA in Digital Arts and New Media from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Ph.D. from the University of Sao Paulo. The films she directed and produced have been screened at Sundance, Locarno, Havana, IDFA, Frameline, Havana, It’s All True and Hot Docs. She is member of the Red de investigación del Audiovisual hecho por Mujeres en América Latina (RAMA), the research network on audiovisual creation by women in Latin America and member of the Brazilian Filmmakers Collective (BRFC).
Documentary Film, Latinx Cinema and Media, Brazilian Cinema, Documentary Studies, Transnational Film, Diasporic Media Studies, Film Archives, Feminist and Queer Media, Film and Media Archives, Media Archeology, Media Literacy.
Documentary, Latin American Cinema, Latinx Media History, Transnational Film, Diasporic Media Studies, Feminist Media Studies, Global Media Studies, Feminist Filmmaking, Feminist Media Practices, Decolonial Theory, Feminist and Queer Historiography, Media Preservation, Film Archives, Media Archeology.
Film History, Film Criticism, Film Production, Documentary Production, Archives and Information, Feminist Film, Latin American Cinema, Brazilian Cinema, Global South Cinemas.
ACADEMIC HONORS Best Dissertation Award 2023 - Brazilian Society of Cinema and Media Studies (SOCINE)
GRANTS Unit 18 Non-Senate Faculty Professional Development Grant, 2023-2024 / Graduate Dean's Travel Grant, 2023 / Arts Dean's Fund for Excellence UCSC, 2022 / Huerta Center Graduate Student Grant, 2022 / Quick Grant – Center for Cultural Innovation, 2022 / Graduate Dean's Research Travel Grant, 2022 / Florence French Financial Aid Fund for Art, 2022 / GSR Fellowship, Spring 2022 / CAPES Ph.D. Fellowship (Brazil), 2017-2021 / CAPES Doctoral Research Fellowship for International Research (Brazil), 2020 / Visible Evidence Filmmaker Fellowship, 2018 / MAEC-AECID Fellowship (Spain), 2015 / CAPES MA Fellowship (Brazil), 2014-2016.
FILM AWARDS Best Documentary Film ("M is for Mothers") 39th Lovers Film Festival, Italy Best Screenplay ("M is for Mothers") 17º For Rainbow Film FEstival, Brazil Short Film Special Jury Award ("A Wild Patience has Taken me Here") Sundance Film Festival, US Nominee Iris Prize LGBTQ+ ("A Wild Patience has Taken me Here"), UK Best Brazilian Short Film ("A Wild Patience has Taken me Here") Olhar de Cinema Festival, Brazil Best Short Film ("A Wild Patience has Taken me Here") 32º Oslo/Fusion Film Festival, Norway Academy Awards Oscar® qualified for Best Short Documentary 2021 ("Carne"), US Special Mention Locarno Film Festival ("Carne"), Switzerland Best Animated Short Film Havana Film Festival ("Carne"), Cuba Best Animated Short Film (Jury Award) Ann Arbor Film Festival ("Carne"), US Best Short Documentary ("Who Killed Eloá?") 57th GENII Awards, Women in Media Southern California, US Honorable Mention - MIX Brazil ("Lampiao da Esquina"), Brazil Best Film IX Encuentro Hispanoamericano De Cine Y Video Documental Independiente ("Who Killed Eloá?"), Mexico Best Short ("Who Killed Eloá?") ATLANTIDOC, Uruguay
Frameline Film Festival, M is for Mothers, dir. by Livia Perez, 2023
Sundance Film Festival, A Wild Patience Has Taken Me Here dir. by Erica Sarmet, 2022 (as executive producer)
Havana Film Festival, A Wild Patience Has Taken Me Here dir. by Erica Sarmet, 2022 (as executive producer)
New York Times Op-Docs, Carne dir. by Camila Kater, 2020 (as executive producer)
IDFA,Carne dir. by Camila Kater, 2019 (as executive producer)
TIFF, Carne dir. by Camila Kater, 2019 (as executive producer)
Locarno Film Festival, Carne dir. by Camila Kater, 2019 (as executive producer)
Visible Evidence, Who Killed Eloa? and Lampiao da Esquina, 2018
LASA, Who Killed Eloa? dir. by Livia Perez, 2016.
Hot Docs, Who Killed Eloa? dir. by Livia Perez, 2016.
Alliance for Women in Media - SoCal, Who Killed Eloa? dir. by Livia Perez, 2016
It's All True, Lampiao da Esquina, dir. by Livia Perez, 2016
DocsMX, Who Killed Eloa? dir. by Livia Perez, 2016.
IDFA, Who Killed Eloa? dir. by Livia Perez, 2015.
Findings in the Closet: The Film and Video Archives of Norma Bahia Pontes, “Cine-Memoria:” Past and Present in Latin American Cinema Conference, Columbia University, NYC, US, 2024
Findings in the Closet: The Media Archives of Norma Bahia Pontes, IAMCR Conference, International Association for Media and Communication Research, Christchurch, New Zealand, 2024
Women's Liberation Movement is a Lesbian Plot: the videotapes of Norma Bahia Pontes and Rita Moreira in the early 1970s, Tate Britain Conference, Women in Revolt!: radical acts, contemporary resonances, London, UK, 2024
Research and film essay as strategies for approaching, preserving, and disseminating the work of Norma Bahia Pontes SCMS Conference, Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Boston, US, 2024
Findings in the Closet: The Film and Video Archives of Norma Bahia Pontes, Pratt Institute, New York, US, 2024
Interview with Rita Moreira and Livia Perez, Remake Film Festival, Feminist Elsewhere, Frankfurt, Germany, 2024
"Restoring Norma Bahia Pontes: Her Legacy from the Modern Brazilian Cinema to the Lesbian Feminist Video in the United States, LASA Congress, Latin America Studies Association, San Francisco, US, 2022
“The New Brazilian Cinema”. Film Quarterly Webinar, online, 2021
"LGBTIA+ Resistance in Brazil: From the Military Dictatorship to the Current Reactionary Wave", Brazilian Resistance to the Reactionary Wave Series, University of California, Santa Cruz, online, 2020
"Media and Performativity", XXV Visible Evidence, University of Indiana, Bloomington, US, 2018
Findings in the Closet: The Moving-Image Archive of Norma Bahia Pontes. STUDIES IN SPANISH AND LATIN AMERICAN CINEMAS. Intellect Books. Forthcoming (English)
Encounters with Norma Bahia Pontes - Works, Displacements and Deliriums of a Brazilian Lesbian Feminist Filmmaker, Videomaker and Essayist. Media and Audiovisual Processes Program, University of Sao Paulo, 2022. Doctoral Dissertation. (Portuguese)
