Kátia Lund facts for kids

Kátia Lund was born on March 13, 1966. She is a talented Brazilian film director and screenwriter. She is best known for helping direct the famous movie City of God.

Early Life and Education

Kátia Lund was born in São Paulo, Brazil. Her parents were from America but moved to Brazil before she was born. She went to Escola Maria Imaculada, an American Catholic school in São Paulo. There, she was very good at art. Later, she studied at Brown University in the United States. This is where she became very interested in making movies.

Kátia Lund's Career

After finishing college with high honors, Kátia Lund started working. She became an assistant director for many music videos, TV commercials, and films. Growing up, she lived in a comfortable family. She did not know much about the difficult lives of people in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (poor neighborhoods).

Filming in the Favelas

Her view changed when she worked on a music video for Michael Jackson. The song was "They Don't Care About Us". It was directed by Spike Lee and filmed in a favela. This experience showed her the struggles of people living there. She decided to make films about these communities. Her goal was to help people in Brazil understand and care about these social issues.

Nós do Cinema Organization

Kátia Lund also leads an organization called Nós do Cinema. This means "We of Cinema." It started with young people who acted in the movie City of God. These young actors were real residents of Rio's favelas. Kátia first created a non-profit acting school to find the cast for City of God.

Nós do Cinema now offers classes and job chances in film for children from poor areas. It also shows movies and holds discussions. This helps to raise awareness about social issues through film. Kátia Lund also directed a part of the 2005 movie All the Invisible Children. Her segment was called "Bilú e João."

Filmography

Awards and Recognitions

Kátia Lund's film News From a Personal War was released in 1999. It was highly praised by critics. It was even nominated for an Emmy Award after being shown on PBS. The success of this film made her a popular director for Brazil's hip-hop artists. She won many MTV Video Music Awards Latin America.

City of God Success

In 2001, Fernando Meirelles asked Lund to co-direct Golden Gate (Palace II). This was a short film about two young boys in a favela. The film won several awards at film festivals around the world. Lund and Meirelles then worked together again on the movie City of God. This film became famous worldwide. It was nominated for four Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars.

The success of City of God led to a TV series called City of Men. This show continued the story from Golden Gate. Kátia Lund helped produce the show with Meirelles. She also directed four episodes. The show was very popular in Brazil.

See also

In Spanish: Kátia Lund para niños