Yes. We have black women filmmakers, yes sir: Adélia Sampaio.
By Flávio Leandro de Souza
[…]
Adélia Sampaio was born in Belo Horizonte in 1944. At 12 years old, she moved to the city of Rio de Janeiro. Adélia Sampaio is one of the few women that get into the direction of feature films in the 1980s, ie, before the Cinema da Retomada – a period from the 90s, when there was a boom of female filmmakers.
Her early film career was in Difilm in 1967, distributor of names linked to Cinema Novo (New Cinema), such as Luiz Carlos Barreto and Joaquim Pedro de Andrade. Adélia Sampaio was the telephone receptionist of Difilm, and in parallel she organized sessions in 16mm for cineclubistas (film club). At the time, she was even a victim of the military dictatorship – her husband, a journalist, was a political prisoner, and she even came to be arrested and beaten by the perpetrators.
Adélia Sampaio was taken to Difilm by her sister, Eliana Cobett, at the time married to filmmaker William Cobett. As they left the Difilm, the two made a partnership in production and produced his films – O monstro de santa teresa (1975); and O grande palhaço (1980). In these productions, Adélia acted on several fronts, she was a producer, executive producer, continuist, makeup artist.
[…] The first black woman director of Brazilian cinema is the Adélia Sampaio. […]
Disponível em: <https://blackbraziltoday.com/the-first-black-woman-to-have-ever-directed/>. Acesso em: 28 fev. 2024.
Segundo o texto, Adélia Santos foi:
A primeira cineasta negra no Brasil que atuou como diretora, produtora e maquiadora.
Uma líder revolucionária perseguida por seu posicionamento político.
Uma atendente telefônica que trabalhou no Cinema Retomada em 1967.
A primeira mulher jornalista a atuar no cinema na cidade do Rio de Janeiro.
Uma prisioneira que participou da produção de um filme em 1975.