Moara Passoni is a Brazilian writer and director. Her debut documentary, Êxtase (CPH:DOX 2020, MoMA Doc Fortnight, Visions du Réel), received numerous awards and critical acclaim. She is a co-writer and associate producer for the Academy Award-Oscar^® nominee and Peabody Award winner The Edge of Democracy, by Petra Costa. Moara is a Torino Script Lab and New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) fellow and a La Fémis-Cannes Producing Atelier alumna. She was selected by Filmmaker Magazine as one of the “25 New Faces of Independent Filmmaking of 2020”. Moara earned an M.F.A. in Screenwriting and Directing from Columbia University in New York City, a B.A. in Sociology, Anthropology and Political Science from the University of São Paulo, a Masters in Documentary from the University of Campinas, and studied Aesthetics at the University of Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis. She is a founding member of the Brazilian Filmmakers Collective and served as head for Columbia Women in Film for three years.

Cost of Living ⎯ São Paulo, 1974. Set during the military dictatorship, Cost of Living shares the true story of Ana Santos, an Afro-Brazilian, working-class mother struggling to put food on her table. Ana blossoms into a sensual, visionary leader, lighting her community ablaze and shaking the military regime to its core.