24/03/2025 - The Brazilian-born, UK-based producer wants to focus on social issues and build bridges between Europe and Latin America

Brazil's Luiza Paiva is a creative producer with an MA degree in Media Practice for Development and Social Change at the University of Sussex as a Stuart Hall Scholar. She specializes in the production of films with a human rights angle and is a member of the Global Impact Producers Alliance created by DocSociety. She started her career at VideoFilms working for the award-winning filmmaker Walter Salles and has recently worked on several features, including Firebrand [+see also:
film review
film profile], directed by Karim Ainouz (selected in the Cannes competition), on projects produced under the slate of the Academy Award-winning UK production company Violet Films and on her own UK production company, Mairare. An interview with her, now selected for the 2025 Emerging Producers programme (read her EP profile here).

Why do you produce documentaries? Do you see documentary cinema as an instrument of social and political change?
Luiza Paiva: Documentaries have always been one of my biggest passions as they serve as an important medium to explore some of the most pressing social issues through an intimate lens with the potential to reach out to a more global perspective. Growing up in Brazil, a country that shaped me profoundly and where economic inequality has reached extreme levels, has prompted an urgency of searching for ways of using cinema to tell important stories and transform my surroundings. Having the privilege of working very early on with some of the most important filmmakers in the country such as Eduardo Coutinho (Last Conversations, Master Building) has informed my practice and trained me to be a producer interested in projects that discuss human rights issues at their core. Moving to the United Kingdom later on to study Media for Social Change was a natural path and working for award-winning producers in the country who are also masters in producing documentaries with that particular interest has inspired me to pursue that pathway and become a producer of films focused on social issues, building bridges between Europe and Latin America.

How do you achieve and maintain work-life balance and foster overall well-being?
The quest for balance and well-being is a very important one as producing can be an intense emotional labor requiring a lot of passion, resilience and hard work especially nowadays with an industry that is going through a huge change. For me It is very important to have a solid base and network of people to exchange with, who support and inspire me. I have been recently speaking with another Emerging Producer, Matheus Mello (read interview), who, like myself, moved between countries and is operating independently with his projects to understand how we can build closer relationships between us, producers, and support each other so we can actually make sure well-being is at the core and centre of our practice and personal lives. I find the search for joy in everyday life very much needed, and so as cycling as a way of commuting and exploring London, great music, reading, watching films from inspiring filmmakers, having an insatiable curiosity for people and good conversations on a daily basis are very therapeutic practices that make me grounded and balanced even in the most challenging times.

Where do you find audiences for your films?
As producers our usual ambition is to find the right audience for the projects we are producing, to critically reflect on how we can amplify and democratise access to films, particularly documentaries, and to shine a light on specific issues we’re tackling. I am part of the Global Impact Producers Alliance created by Doc Society, a fantastic network of talented professionals from diverse backgrounds and countries who are working with impact production and thinking about who the potential viewers for our films are from the start, interrogating where this film must be screened so we can reach the ones that need access to them, and on which platforms they need to be in order to either raise people’s awareness to some of the most pressing human rights issues, or to use as films an advocacy tool, for instance. A tough market that is under constant change with viewers whose behavior towards screens is shifting requires a lot of strategy, partnerships with organisations and innovative skills such as impact campaigning. This will promote access to films for those who might not have access to traditional cinema screenings, and innovative ways to rethink how we can bring what we are producing to audiences who are the right fit for them.

What projects do you have underway?
I have founded my UK production company, Mairare, and I have under my slate co-productions between Brazil and the United Kingdom: Puahu (working title), a documentary directed by Zahy Tentehar and Darília Rocha, which explores the topic of dreams, and Beyond the Fight (working title), a documentary about a Brazilian congresswoman produced in partnership with Leonardo Souza and his company, Okoto Studio (Rabiola Open Skies), which focuses on linear & immersive projects, and the short-film, A Summer Cloud (working title), a fiction directed by Rasha Hosny (Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo), which tells the story of an Egyptian woman who receives unexpected fertility test results and embarks on a personal journey to deal with the outcomes. I am also particularly interested in projects that build bridges between Europe, Latin America and other countries. 

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EMERGING PRODUCERS is a leading promotional and educational project, which brings together talented European documentary film producers. The programme is organised and curated by the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival.

Deadline for applications to the EMERGING PRODUCERS 2026 edition is 31 March 2025.