about
Meet a filmmaker who has received the most impressive title of “alien of extraordinary ability” by U.S. Immigration - that’s me. UPDATE: I’ve now got a green card! Though not sure if that qualifies me as a human yet. Will keep you posted as I research. But back to awkwardly speaking in third person—
Lorena Lourenço is an award-winning director, writer and producer from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She’s a USC School of Cinematic Arts alum and a Film Independent Episodic Directing Fellow. She is passionate about telling stories from marginalized perspectives that highlight cultural identity, the immigrant experience, queer joy and female strength (though she barely works out).
Her short Muy Gay Too Mexicano has been selected for competition at Outfest, Inside Out, LALIFF, and Out on Film, amongst others and is streaming on HBOmax. Her pilot Sula and I was selected for the Orchard Project’s episodic lab and is being produced by Mucho Más Media. Yas Kween, the webseries she directed starring Joy Sunday (Wednesday) and Salina Estitties (RuPaul's Drag Race), is available to stream on Revry. Finally, the internationally award-winning short she wrote, directed and edited, titled Joy, investigates the experiences of an immigrant woman of color in Trump’s America.
She has directed and/or produced with talents such as Troian Bellisario (Pretty Little Liars,) Joy Sunday (Wednesday,) Emily Osment (Hannah Montana,) and Salina EsTitties (the real RuPaul’s Drag Race S15 Miss Congeniality). Lorena has also worked in production for Tribeca and Sundance nominated documentaries as well as in scripted television for Netflix, HBO, Amazon, and others.
Most recently, Lorena is in post production for two shorts (one of which was written by Emmy-nominee Pratima Mani) and in development for the indie feature What Ever Happened to Rosa Elena? written by Outfest lab alum, Jorge Molina, which is a queer telenovela horror comedy. The film has been selected for the NALIP Media Market as well as the Inside Out Film Finance Forum.
Hit me up for jokes on immigration — nothing I like more than making Americans laugh uncomfortably about their politics.
More links and profiles (because you can never have too many, according to my immigration lawyers):