THE BONY LADY

This film follows Arely Vazquez, a transgender woman and leader of the Santa Muerte cult in Queens, NY, during her yearly celebration to La Flaca.

Director Bio

Adriana Barbosa is a Mexican-Brazilian filmmaker based in São Paulo, Brazil. She is part of the Film Collective Cinefusão since 2009 where she took part of the script and art direction for the short films Wax (2009) and String Quintet (2010). Between 2015 and 2016 she produced the feature film Young and Miserable and A Film of Cinema, both directed by Thiago B. Mendonça. In 2016, she also directs the short film Bite selected at Off Cinema Documentary Film Festival in Poland, Bucharest Short Films, Diametrale Experimental Film Festival, among others. In 2018 she directed the short film La Flaca, about a transgender Mexican woman and leader of the Santa Muerte (Saint Death) cult in Queens, NY, selected at Fribourg International Film Festival, Message to Man, New Orleans Film Festival, Frameline San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, Havana Film Festival, Guanajuato IFF, OutFest Los Angeles LGBT Film Festival, among others.  Also in 2018, she premieres her first documentary feature Madrigal for a Living Poet at the Official Competition of 21th Mostra de Cinema de Tiradentes and she continues her research on a documentary about the regional Mexican traditions related to death.

Thiago Zanato is a Brazilian-American filmmaker splitting his time between Los Angeles and São Paulo. He worked on films such as Bite (Brazil, 2016) and Madrigal for a Living Poet (Brazil, 2018), both directed by Adriana Barbosa and Bruno Mello Castanho. In 2018, he directed the short film La Flaca, about a transgender Mexican woman and leader of the Santa Muerte (Saint Death) cult in Queens, New York. The film was highly acclaimed and entered more than 30 film festivals around the world. He is currently directing his first feature documentary, Esu and the Universe, and continues his research about immigration and faith as resistance.

Plays in

SHORTS: GOTTA HAVE FAITH

The characters across these faith-based shorts combine courage with religious practice, whether channeling spiritual guidance or pushing back…