Suzana Amaral

Married in her early twenties, Suzana Amaral never gave up on her dream. She is one of the well-known Brazilian filmmakers. Mother of eight children, Suzana Amaral beautifully balanced both her professional and personal life. Born on 28th March 1928 she started attending the University of Sao Paulo, film school at the age of thirty-seven.

After completing her studies, Suzana Amaral worked as a professor at the same university and later went to work with the Radio and Television Cultura in Brazil. Here is where she wrote many screenplays and involved in production and direction department for around fourteen years. In 1975 she enrolled at New York University and received a degree from graduate film school where she improved her skills in filmmaking and returned to Brazil later. Suzana directed almost forty documentaries and short films before making her first picture, “Hour of the Star” which got nominated for the Brazil’s Academy awards. This movie narrates about the young woman who suffered through her livelihood and Suzana put forth all the emotions splendidly. Even before her debut film, Suzana Amaral’s short films such as My Life, Our Struggle captivated the audience with their brilliant plot and screenplay.

During one of her interviews, she spoke about her career in the film industry and how she worked her way up to directing films. Suzana confessed that she directed many documentaries and shorts just to learn more about the movie field and its internal working. Amaral explained that during this part of life, she learned a lot about social problems and got awareness about the reality. She still believes that understanding the reality helped her to recognize her directing style.

Her movie “Hour of the Star” is the adaptation of the novel where the lead character Macabea has so much resemblance with the Brazilians. This feature film had won many awards and received positive reviews from legendary critics. The actress, Marcelia Cartaxo played the lead role and won the Silver Bear for the Best Actress award in 36th Berlin International Film festival. Suzana used to put all her eight children in the bathtub at the same time, let them play for a while and used to dress them up with the next day clothes and put them to the bed. The above incident is the best example how busy she was while developing her career and how wonderfully she managed her family life too.

Suzana Amaral proudly says that there is a decent place for women in Brazilian film direction field and she is happy for accepting and recognizing her work. She is a feminist and suggests that every woman should plan what to do during the second half of their lives. No one should stay and home and assume motherhood as a profession but should rather work their living style.